* 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/bookloverguidetoOObaldrich 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 


^m^m^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m^^^m^^^^^m 

s 

m 

m 

8 

m 

m 

'    23 

B 

1 
S 

THE    BOOK    LOVER 

B 
B 

1    A  GUIDE  TO  THE  BEST  READING 

Mi 

§ 
8 

§ 

BY  JAMES   BALDWIN 

1 

'i 

B 

B 
i 

i 

REVISED  EDITION  WITH  NEW 

B 
8 

m 

LISTS  AND  ADDITIONAL 

i 

m 

i 

MATTER 

8 

S 

1 

8 

| 

& 

S 
B 
i 
§ 
S 

1 

§ 

B 
B 
m 
B 
8 
8 
B 
8 
8 

WHOSOEVER  THEREFORE  CLAIMS  TO 

BE   ZEALOUS   OF  TRUTH,    OF    HAPPI- 

NESS,  OF  WISDOM,   OF   KNOWLEDGE, 

AYE    EVEN    OF    THE    FAITH,     MUST 

NEEDS  BECOME  A  LOVER  OF  BOOKS. 

RICHARD  DE  BURY 

S 

8 

B 

8 

1 

B 

B 

8 

i 

m 

B 

FIFTEENTH  EDITION 

m 

B 

Z     ..           •         * 

B 

B 

B 

5 

8 

B 

8 

m 

•       •          '                                        '  v              '       '     "  • 

8 

m 

8 

B 

8 

S 

B 

B 
8 
B 
B 
B 
8 
B 

CHICAGO 

8 
B 
8 
8 
3 
8 
S 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &   COMPANY 

MDCCCCX 

Ail  iHii  #*%  irfli  irti*  IN  ?*%  ?•%  irK  irHi  rf-Hi  jr*%  jrtii  irtir  jtt*  #"Ht  irHi  Jr*Ti  *+»  Jr*Ti  JrWi  ir*1«  ?**  ir**  J**  Jt*  JrHt  ^-Hi  irrfc 

COPYRIGHT  BY  JANSEN,   McCLURG  &  CO.,  1884 
COPYRIGHT  IJY  A.  C.   McCLURG  &  CO.,   1888,  1895,   1902        SQHQtti 


PUBLISHED  MARCH,   1902 


D.  B.   UPDIKE,   THE   MERRYMOUNT    PRESS,   BOSTON 


>*V*;  PREFACE 

TO   THE   THIRTEENTH   EDITION 

BOOK  love  has  ever  been  my  passion;  of 
its  beginning  I  have  no  recollection. 
Although  its  early  opportunities  to  manifest 
itself  were  slight  indeed,  yet  it  seemed  to 
me  so  natural  and  so  very  necessary,  that 
as  a  child  I  thought  everybody  ought  to 
be  possessed  by  it  in  the  same  manner  as 
myself.  That  any  person  could  live  indif- 
ferent to  the  allurements  of  books  was  a 
matter  of  constant  wonderment. 

As  time  passed  and  it  became  my  lot  to 
be  an  instructor  of  others,  these  earlier  ideas 
were  modified  by  sympathy  for  those  who 
were  denied  the  delights  that  had  been 
mine.  Books  had  given  me  so  much  com- 
fort, so  much   help  and   guidance,  that  I 

[3] 


401092 


PREFACE 
was  anxious  for  my  pupils  to  be  similarly 
profited  by  their  gentle  ministrations.  But 
books  were  not  plentiful  in  those  days,  and 
school  libraries  were  unknown.  Nevertheless, 
I  contrived  to  place  a  few  choice  volumes 
within  the  reach  of  my  young  charges,  and 
therewith  tempted  them  into  the  paths  that 
I  had  trod.  What  joy  was  mine  and  theirs 
as  with  eagerness  they  began  to  lay  hold 
upon  this  new  form  of  instruction  which 
offered  so  pleasant  a  relief  from  the  dry-as- 
dust  text-books  hitherto  believed  to  be  the 
only  books!  But  what  was  our  disappoint- 
ment when  the  school  director  peremptorily 
closed  my  little  library,  affirming  that  the 
reading  habit  which  I  was  fostering  tended 
to  debauch  the  children's  minds  and  to  unfit 
them  for  study ! 

It  was  while  combating  the  prejudices  of 

[4] 


PREFACE 
school  directors  and  parents,  and  trying  to 
awaken  teachers  from  their  indifference,  that 
I  first  conceived  the  plan  of  The  Book 
Lover.  In  its  original  form  it  was  largely 
addressed  to  persons  charged  with  the  edu- 
cation of  youth,  no  less  than  to  that  con- 
siderable class  of  men  and  women  who  seek 
self-culture  through  the  aid  of  books.  Since 
the  appearance  of  the  first  edition  great 
changes  have  taken  place  in  matters  educa- 
tional. Now  it  is  a  poor  school  indeed  that 
has  not  its  own  well-equipped  library.  The 
work  of  the  text-books  is  everywhere  supple- 
mented by  much  reference  to  the  best  litera- 
ture on  the  subjects  studied;  and  the  culti- 
vation of  right  habits  of  reading  has  become 
one  of  the  most  important  duties  of  teachers. 
Were  it  not  that  The  Book  Lover  has 
found   a   much   larger   field   than    that   to 


PREFACE 
which  it  at  first  aspired,  one  might  suppose 
that  its  mission  was  in  great  part  ended. 
But  the  generous  reception  given  to  it  by 
bookmen  and  scholars  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  has  indicated  that  it  has  a  per- 
manent interest  and  a  value  quite  in  accord 
with  the  demands  of  the  general  reading 
public.  The  publishers  have  therefore  deemed 
it  wise  to  reprint  it  from  new  plates  and  with 
such  revisions  as  the  changed  conditions  of 
things  seem  to  require.  Some  of  the  chap- 
ters have  been  rewritten,  the  pedagogical 
features  have  been  modified  or  omitted,  and 
the  book  lists  have  been  brought  down  to 
date.  In  its  new  form  and  new  dress,  it  now 
goes  forth  again  to  urge  the  judicious  choice 
and  the  right  usage  and  the  wise  reading  of 
good  books. 
March,  19VB. 

[6] 


FOREWORD 
TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION 

THE  title-page  of  this  book  explains  its 
plan  and  purpose.  The  courses  of  read- 
ing and  the  schemes  for  practical  study 
herein  indicated  are  the  outgrowth  of  the 
author's  long  experience  as  a  lover  of  books 
and  director  of  reading.  They  have  been 
tested  and  found  to  be  all  that  is  claimed 
for  them.  As  to  the  large  number  of  quota- 
tions in  the  first  part  of  the  book,  they  are 
given  in  the  belief  that  "in  a  multitude  of 
counsels  there  is  wisdom.'"  And  the  author 
finds  consolation  and  encouragement  in  the 
following  words  of  Emerson:  "We  are  as 
much  informed  of  a  writer's  genius  by  what 
he  selects,  as  by  what  he  originates.  We 
read  the  quotation  with  his  eyes,  and  find  a 

[7] 


FOREWORD 
new  and  fervent  sense.""  As  the  value  of  the 
most  useful  inventions  depends  upon  the  in- 
genious placing  of  their  parts,  so  the  origi- 
nality of  this  work  may  be  found  to  lie 
chiefly  in  its  arrangement.  Yet  the  writer 
confidently  believes  that  his  readers  will 
enjoy  that  which  he  has  borrowed,  and  pos- 
sibly find  aid  and  encouragement  in  that 
which  he  claims  as  his  own;  and  therefore 
this  book  is  sent  out  with  the  hope  that 
book  lovers  will  find  in  it  a  safe  Guide  to 
the  Best  Reading. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Prelude 

In  Praise  of  Books  13 

Chapter  I 

On  the  Choice  of  Books  31 

Chapter  II 

How  to  Read  59 

Chapter  III 

On  the  Value  and  Use  of  Libraries  77 

Chapter  IV 

Books  of  Power  95 

Chapter  V 

What  Books  shall  Children  Read?  Ill 

Chapter  VI 

The  Library  in  the  School  141 

Chapter  VII 

Books  relating  to  Ancient  History  153 

Chapter  VIII 

Books  relating  to  Modern  History  169 

[9] 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter  IX 

Geography  and  Travels  197 

Chapter  X 

Philosophy  and  Religion  215 

Chapter  XI 

Political  Economy  and  the  Science  of  Gov- 
ernment 233 

Chapter  XII 

On  the  Practical  Study  of  English  Literature  243 

Chapter  XIII 

"  The  Hundred  Best  Books"  265 

Index  287 


PRELUDE 
IN   PRAISE   OF   BOOKS 


Book  love,  my  friends,  is  your  pass  to  the  greatest, 
the  purest,  and  the  most  perfect  pleasures  that  God 
has  prepared  for  his  creatures.  It  lasts  when  all  other 
pleasures  fade.  It  will  support  you  when  all  other 
recreations  are  gone.  It  will  last  you  until  your  death. 
It  will  make  your  hours  pleasant  to  you  as  long  as 
you  live. 

Anthony  Troixope 


PRELUDE 
IN    PRAISE    OF   BOOKS 

1ET  us  consider  how  great  a  commodity  of 
J  doctrine  exists  in  books;  how  easily,  how 
secretly,  how  safely  they  expose  the  naked- 
ness of  human  ignorance  without  putting  it  to 
shame.  These  are  the  masters  who  instruct  us 
without  rods  and  ferules,  without  hard  words 
and  anger,  without  clothes  or  money.  If  you 
approach  them,  they  are  not  asleep;  if  inves- 
tigating you  interrogate  them,  they  conceal 
nothing;  if  you  mistake  them,  they  never 
grumble;  if  you  are  ignorant,  they  cannot 
laugh  at  you. 

You  only,  O  Books,  are  liberal  and  indepen- 
dent. You  give  to  all  who  ask,  and  enfranchise 
all  who  serve  you  assiduously.  Truly,  you  are 
the  ears  filled  with  most  palatable  grains.  You 
are  golden  urns  in  which  manna  is  laid  up; 
rocks  flowing  with  honey,  or  rather,  indeed, 
honeycombs;  udders  most   copiously  yielding 

[13] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
the  milk  of  life;  storerooms  ever  full;  the 
four-streamed  river  of  Paradise,  where  the  hu- 
man mind  is  fed,  and  the  arid  intellect  mois- 
tened and  watered ;  fruitful  olives ;  vines  of  En- 
gaddi;  fig  trees  knowing  no  sterility;  burning 
lamps  to  be  ever  held  in  the  hand. 

No  iron-stained  hand  is  fit  to  handle  books, 
Nor  he  whose  heart  on  gold  so  gladly  looks; 
The  same  men  love  not  books  and  money  both, 
And  books  thy  herd,  O  Epicurus,  loathe; 
Misers  and  bookmen  make  poor  company, 
Nor  dwell  in  peace  beneath  the  same  rooftree. 
Richard  de  Bury,  1344 

Books  are  friends  whose  society  is  extremely 
agreeable  to  me;  they  are  of  all  ages,  and  of 
every  country.  They  have  distinguished  them- 
selves both  in  the  cabinet  and  in  the  field,  and 
obtained  high  honors  for  their  knowledge  of 
the  sciences.  It  is  easy  to  gain  access  to  them; 
for  they  are  always  at  my  service,  and  I  admit 
them  to  my  company,  and  dismiss  them  from 
it,  whenever  I  please.  They  are  never  trouble- 

[14] 


IN   PRAISE   OF   BOOKS 

some,  but  immediately  answer  every  question 
I  ask  them.  Some  relate  to  me  the  events  of 
past  ages,  while  others  reveal  to  me  the  se- 
crets of  Nature.  Some  teach  me  how  to  live, 
and  others  how  to  die.  Some,  by  their  vivacity, 
drive  away  my  cares  and  exhilarate  my  spirits; 
while  others  give  fortitude  to  my  mind,  and 
teach  me  the  important  lesson  how  to  restrain 
my  desires,  and  to  depend  wholly  on  myself. 
They  open  to  me,  in  short,  the  various  avenues 
of  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  upon  their  in- 
formation I  safely  rely  in  all  emergencies.  In 
return  for  all  these  services,  they  only  ask  me 
to  accommodate  them  with  a  convenient  cham- 
ber in  some  corner  of  my  humble  habitation, 
where  they  may  repose  in  peace;  for  these 
friends  are  more  delighted  by  the  tranquillity 
of  retirement,  than  with  the  tumults  of  society. 
Francesco  Petrabca,  1350 

But  how  can  I  live  here  without  my  books? 
I  really  seem  to  myself  crippled  and  only  half 
myself;  for  if,  as  the  great  Orator  used  to  say, 

[15] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
arms  are  a  soldier's  members,  surely  books 
are  the  limbs  of  scholars.  Corasius  says:  "Of  a 
truth,  he  who  would  deprive  me  of  books,  my 
old  friends,  would  take  away  all  the  delight 
of  my  life;  nay,  I  will  even  say,  all  desire  of 
living." 

Balthasar  Bonifacius  Rhodiginus,  1656 

For  books  are  not  absolutely  dead  things, 
but  do  contain  a  potency  of  life  in  them  to 
be  as  active  as  that  soul  was  whose  progeny 
they  are;  nay,  they  do  preserve,  as  in  a  vial, 
the  purest  efficacy  and  extraction  of  that  liv- 
ing intellect  that  bred  them.  I  know  they  are 
as  lively  and  as  vigorously  productive  as  those 
fabulous  dragon's  teeth,  and,  being  sown  up 
and  down,  may  chance  to  spring  up  armed 
men.  .  .  .  Many  a  man  lives,  a  burden  to  the 
earth;  but  a  good  book  is  the  precious  life- 
blood  of  a  master  spirit,  embalmed  and  treas- 
ured up  on  purpose  for  a  life  beyond  life. 

John  Milton,  1644 

Books  are  a  guide  in  youth,  and  an  enter- 
[16] 


IN  PRAISE  OF  BOOKS 
tainment  for  age.  They  support  us  under  soli- 
tude, and  keep  us  from  being  a  burden  to 
ourselves.  They  help  us  to  forget  the  crossness 
of  men  and  things,  compose  our  cares  and  our 
passions,  and  lay  our  disappointments  asleep. 
When  we  are  weary  of  the  living,  we  may  re- 
pair to  the  dead,  who  have  nothing  of  peevish- 
ness, pride,  or  design  in  their  conversation. 

Jeremy  Collier 

God  be  thanked  for  books!  They  are  the 
voices  of  the  distant  and  the  dead,  and  make 
us  heirs  of  the  spiritual  life  of  past  ages. 
Books  are  the  true  levellers.  They  give  to  all 
who  will  faithfully  use  them,  the  society,  the 
spiritual  presence,  of  the  best  and  greatest  of 
our  race.  No  matter  how  poor  I  am;  no  matter 
though  the  prosperous  of  my  own  time  will 
not  enter  my  obscure  dwelling;  if  the  sacred 
writers  will  enter  and  take  up  their  abode  un- 
der my  roof,  —  if  Milton  will  cross  my  thresh- 
old to  sing  to  me  of  Paradise,  and  Shakespeare 
to  open  to  me  the  worlds  of  imagination  and 

[17] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
the  workings  of  the  human  heart,  and  Frank- 
lin to  enrich  me  with  his  practical  wisdom, — 
I  shall  not  pine  for  want  of  intellectual  com- 
panionship, and  I  may  become  a  cultivated  man, 
though  excluded  from  what  is  called  the  best 
society  in  the  place  where  I  live. 

William  Ellery  Channing 

Wondrous,  indeed,  is  the  virtue  of  a  true 
book!  Not  like  a  dead  city  of  stones,  yearly 
crumbling,  yearly  needing  repair;  more  like  a 
tilled  field,  but  then  a  spiritual  field;  like  a 
spiritual  tree,  let  me  rather  say,  it  stands  from 
year  to  year  and  from  age  to  age  (we  have 
books  that  already  number  some  hundred  and 
fifty  human  ages);  and  yearly  comes  its  new 
produce  of  leaves  (commentaries,  deductions, 
philosophical,  political  systems;  or  were  it  only 
sermons,  pamphlets,  journalistic  essays),  every 
one  of  which  is  talismanic  and  thaumaturgic, 
for  it  can  persuade  man.  O  thou  who  art  able 
to  write  a  book,  which  once  in  two  centuries 
or  oftener  there  is  a  man  gifted  to  do,  envy 

[18] 


IN  PRAISE  OF  BOOKS 
not  him  whom  they  name  city-builder,  and 
inexpressibly  pity  him  whom  they  name  con- 
queror or  city-burner!  Thou,  too,  art  a  con- 
queror and  victor;  but  of  the  true  sort,  namely, 
over  the  Devil.  Thou,  too,  hast  built  what  will 
outlast  all  marble  and  metal,  and  be  a  wonder- 
bringing  city  of  mind,  a  temple  and  seminary 
and  prophetic  mount,  whereto  all  kindreds  of 

the  earth  will  pilgrim. 

Thomas  Carlyle 

Good  books,  like  good  friends,  are  few  and 
chosen;  the  more  select,  the  more  enjoyable; 
and  like  these  are  approached  with  diffidence, 
nor  sought  too  familiarly  nor  too  often,  having 
the  precedence  only  when  friends  tire.  The 
most  mannerly  of  companions,  accessible  at  all 
times,  in  all  moods,  they  frankly  declare  the 
author's  mind,  without  giving  offence.  Like 
living  friends,  they  too  have  their  voice  and 
physiognomies,  and  their  company  is  prized  as 
old  acquaintances.  We  seek  them  in  our  need 
of  counsel  or  of  amusement,  without  imperti- 
nence or  apology,  sure  of  having  our  claims 
[19] 


THE    BOOK    LOVER 
allowed.  A  good  book  justifies  our  theory  of 
personal  supremacy,  keeping  this  fresh  in  the 
memory  and  perennial.  What  were  days  with- 
out such   fellowship?  We  were  alone  in   the 

world  without  it. 

A.  Bronson  Alcott 

Consider  what  you  have  in  the  smallest 
chosen  library.  A  company  of  the  wisest  and 
wittiest  men  that  could  be  picked  out  of  all 
civil  countries,  in  a  thousand  years,  have  set 
in  best  order  the  results  of  their  learning  and 
wisdom.  The  men  themselves  were  hid  and  in- 
accessible, solitary,  impatient  of  interruption, 
fenced  by  etiquette;  but  the  thought  which 
they  did  not  uncover  to  their  bosom  friend  is 
here  written  out  in  transparent  words  to  us, 
the  strangers  of  another  age. 

We  owe  to  books  those  general  benefits 
which  come  from  high  intellectual  action. 
Thus,  I  think,  we  often  owe  to  them  the  per- 
ception of  immortality.  They  impart  sympa- 
thetic activity  to  the  moral  power.  Go  with 
mean  people,  and  you  think  life  is  mean.  Then 
[20] 


IN  PRAISE  OF  BOOKS 
read  Plutarch,  and  the  world  is  a  proud  place, 
peopled  with  men  of  positive  quality,  with 
heroes  and  demigods  standing  around  us,  who 
will  not  let  us  sleep.  Then  they  address  the 
imagination:  only  poetry  inspires  poetry.  They 
become  the  organic  culture  of  the  time.  Col- 
lege education  is  the  reading  of  certain  books 
which  the  common  sense  of  all  scholars  agrees 
will  represent  the  science  already  accumulated. 
...  In  the  highest  civilization  the  book  is  still 

the  highest  delight. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson 

A  great  book  that  comes  from  a  great 
thinker, — it  is  a  ship  of  thought,  deep-freighted 
with  truth,  with  beauty  too.  It  sails  the  ocean, 
driven  by  the  winds  of  heaven,  breaking  the 
level  sea  of  life  into  beauty  where  it  goes, 
leaving  behind  it  a  train  of  sparkling  loveli- 
ness, widening  as  the  ship  goes  on.  And  what 
a  treasure  it  brings  to  every  land,  scattering 
the  seeds  of  truth,  justice,  love,  and  piety,  to 
bless  the  world  in  ages  yet  to  come! 

Theodore  Parker 
[21] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
What  is  a  great  love  of  books?  It  is  some- 
thing like  a  personal  introduction  to  the  great 
and  good  men  of  all  past  times.  Books,  it  is 
true,  are  silent  as  you  see  them  on  their 
shelves;  but,  silent  as  they  are,  when  I  enter 
a  library  I  feel  as  if  almost  the  dead  were 
present,  and  I  know  if  I  put  questions  to  these 
books  they  will  answer  me  with  all  the  faith- 
fulness and  fulness  which  has  been  left  in 
them   by  the    great  men  who  have  left  the 

books  with  us. 

John  Bright 

Books  are  our  household  gods;  and  we  can- 
not prize  them  too  highly.  They  are  the  only 
gods  in  all  the  mythologies  that  are  beautiful 
and  unchangeable ;  for  they  betray  no  man,  and 
love  their  lovers.  I  confess  myself  an  idolater 
of  this  literary  religion,  and  am  grateful  for 
the  blessed  ministry  of  books.  It  is  a  kind  of 
heathenism  which  needs  no  missionary  funds, 
no  Bible  even,  to  abolish  it;  for  the  Bible  it- 
self caps  the  peak  of  this  new  Olympus,  and 
crowns  it  with  sublimity  and  glory.  Amongst 
[22] 


IN  PRAISE  OF  BOOKS 
the  many  things  we  have  to  be  thankful  for, 
as  the  result  of  modern  discoveries,  surely  this 
of  printed  books  is  the  highest  of  all;  and  I, 
for  one,  am  so  sensible  of  its  merits  that  I  never 
think  of  the  name  of  Gutenberg  without  feel- 
ings of  veneration  and  homage. 

George  Seable  Phillips 

The  only  true  equalizers  in  the  world  are 
books;  the  only  treasure-house  open  to  all 
comers  is  a  library;  the  only  wealth  which  will 
not  decay  is  knowledge;  the  only  jewel  which 
you  can  carry  beyond  the  grave  is  wisdom.  To 
live  in  this  equality,  to  share  in  these  treas- 
ures, to  possess  this  wealth,  and  to  secure  this 
jewel  may  be  the  happy  lot  of  every  one.  All 
that  is  needed  for  the  acquisition  of  these  in- 
estimable treasures  is  the  love  of  books. 

John  Alfred  Langford 

Let  us  thank  God  for  books.  When  I  con- 
sider  what   some    books    have    done    for    the 
world,  and  what   they  are    doing;  how  they 
keep  up  our  hope,  awaken  new  courage  and 
[23] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 

faiths  soothe  pain,  give  an  ideal  life  to  those 

whose  homes  are  hard  and  cold,  bind  together 

distant   ages   and   foreign   lands,    create    new 

worlds    of   beauty,    bring    down    truths   from 

heaven,  —  I  give  eternal  blessings  for  this  gift, 

and  pray  that  we  may  use  it  aright,  and  abuse 

it  not. 

James  Freeman  Clarke 

Science,  art,  literature,  philosophy, — all  that 
man  has  thought,  all  that  man  has  done, —  the 
experience  that  has  been  bought  with  the  suf- 
ferings of  a  hundred  generations, — all  are  gar- 
nered up  for  us  in  the  world  of  books.  There, 
among  realities,  in  a  "substantial  world,"  we 
move  with  the  crowned  kings  of  thought. 
There  our  minds  have  a  free  range,  our  hearts 
a  free  utterance.  Reason  is  confined  within 
none  of  the  partitions  which  trammel  it  in 
life.  In  that  world,  no  divinity  hedges  a  king, 
no  accident  of  rank  or  fashion  ennobles  a 
dunce  or  shields  a  knave.  We  can  select  our 
companions  from  among  the  most  richly  gifted 
of  the  sons  of  God;  and  they  are  companions 
[24] 


IN   PRAISE   OF   BOOKS 
who  will  not  desert  us  in  poverty,   or  sick- 
ness, or  disgrace. 

Edwin  P.  Whipple 

For  what  a  world  of  books  offers  itself,  in 
all  subjects,  arts,  and  sciences,  to  the  sweet 
content  and  capacity  of  the  reader?  In  arith- 
metic, geometry,  perspective,  optics,  astron- 
omy, architecture,  sculptura,  pictura,  of  which 
so  many  and  such  elaborate  treatises  are  of 
late  written;  in  mechanics  and  their  myste- 
ries, military  matters,  navigation,  riding  of 
horses,  fencing,  swimming,  gardening,  plant- 
ing, etc.  .  .  .  What  so  sure,  what  so  pleasant? 
What  vast  tomes  are  extant  in  law,  physic, 
and  divinity,  for  profit,  pleasure,  practice,  spec- 
ulation, in  verse  or  prose!  Their  names  alone 
are  the  subject  of  whole  volumes;  we  have 
thousands  of  authors  of  all  sorts,  many  great 
libraries,  full  well  furnished,  like  so  many 
dishes  of  meat,  served  out  for  several  palates, 
and   he  is  a  very  block   that  is  affected  with 

none  of  them. 

Robert  Burton 

[25] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 

Except  a  living  man,  there  is  nothing  more 

wonderful  than  a  book! — a  message  to  us  from 

the  dead,  —  from  human  souls  whom  we  never 

saw,   who    lived    perhaps    thousands   of   miles 

away;  and  yet   these,   on   those   little   sheets 

of  paper,    speak   to  us,   amuse   us,   vivify  us, 

teach  us,  comfort  us,  open  their  hearts  to  us 

as  brothers.  We  ought  to  reverence  books,  to 

look  at  them  as  useful  and  mighty  things.  If 

they  are   good   and  true,  .    .    .    they  are   the 

message   of  Christ,  the   maker  of  all  things, 

the  teacher  of  all  truth. 

Charles  Kingsley 

I  love  my  books  as  drinkers  love  their  wine ; 
The  more  I  drink,  the  more  they  seem  divine; 
With  joy  elate  my  soul  in  love  runs  o'er, 
And  each  fresh  draught  is  sweeter  than  before ! 
Books  bring  me  friends  where'er  on  earth  I  be, — 
Solace  of  solitude,  bonds  of  society. 

I  love  my  books!  they  are  companions  dear, 
Sterling  in  worth,  in  friendship  most  sincere; 
Here  talk  I  with  the  wise  in  ages  gone, 
And  with  the  nobly  gifted  in  our  own : 
[26] 


IN    PRAISE    OF   BOOKS 
If  love,  joy,  laughter,  sorrow  please  my  mind, 
Love,  joy,  grief,  laughter  in  my  books  I  find. 

Francis  Bennoch 

Oh  for  a  booke  and  a  shadie  nook 

Either  in-doors  or  out; 
With  the  grene  leaves  whisp'ring  overhead, 

Or  the  streete  cryes  all  about, 
Where  I  may  reade  all  at  my  ease, 

Both  of  the  new  and  olde ; 
For  a  jollie  goode  booke  whereon  to  looke, 

Is  better  to  me  than  golde. 

Old  English  Song 

Books,  we  know, 
Are  a  substantial  world,  both  pure  and  good; 
Round  these,  with  tendrils  strong  as  flesh  and 

blood, 
Our  pastime  and  our  happiness  will  grow. 

William  Wordsworth 

Golden  volumes!  richest  treasures! 
Objects  of  delicious  pleasures! 
You  my  eyes  rejoicing  please, 
You  my  hands  in  rapture  seize. 
[27] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
Brilliant  wits  and  musing  sages, 
Lights  who  beamed  through  many  ages,  « 
Left  to  your  conscious  leaves  their  story, 
And  dared  to  trust  you  with  their  glory ; 
And  now  their  hope  of  fame  achieved, 
Dear  volumes! — you  have  not  deceived. 

Henry  Rantzau 


[28] 


ON   THE   CHOICE   OF   BOOKS 


The  choice  of  books,  like  that  of  friends,  is  a  serious 
duty.  We  are  as  responsible  for  what  we  read  as  for 
what  we  do.  The  best  books  elevate  us  into  a  region 
of  disinterested  thought  where  personal  objects  fade 
into  insignificance,  and  the  troubles  and  the  anxieties 
of  the  world  are  almost  forgotten. 

Sir  John  Lubbock 


CHAPTER   I 
ON   THE   CHOICE    OF   BOOKS 

THE  most  important  question  for  you  to 
ask  yourself,  be  your  profession  what  it 
may,  is  this:  What  books  shall  I  read?  For 
him  who  has  inclination  to  read,  there  is  no 
dearth  of  reading  matter,  and  it  is  obtainable 
almost  for  the  asking.  Books  are  in  a  manner 
thrust  upon  you  almost  daily.  Shall  you  read 
without  discrimination  whatever  comes  most 
readily  to  hand?  As  well  say  that  you  will 
accept  as  a  friend  and  companion  every  man 
whom  you  meet  on  the  street.  Shall  you  read 
even  every  good  book  that  comes  in  your  way, 
simply  because  it  is  harmless  and  interesting? 
It  is  not  every  harmless  book,  nor  indeed 
every  good  book,  that  will  make  your  mind 
the  richer  for  the  reading  of  it. 

Never,  perhaps,  has  the  right  choice  of  books 
been  more  difficult  than  at  present;  and  never 
did   it    behoove    more    strongly    every    right- 
[31] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 
minded  person  to  look  well  to  the  character 
of  that  which  he  reads. 

First,  then,  let  us  consider  what  books  we 
are  to  avoid.  All  will  agree  that  those  which 
are  really  and  absolutely  bad  should  be 
shunned  as  we  shun  a  pestilence.  In  these 
first  years  of  the  twentieth  century  there  are 
no  more  prolific  causes  of  evil  than  bad  books 
and  certain  vile  periodicals  miscalled  news- 
papers. There  are  some  publications  so  utterly 
vicious  that  there  is  no  mistaking  their  charac- 
ter, and  no  question  as  to  whether  they  should 
be  avoided.  There  are  others  that  are  a  thou- 
sand-fold more  dangerous  because  they  come  to 
us  disguised,  —  "wolves  in  sheep's  clothing,"  — 
affecting  a  character  of  harmlessness,  if  not  of 
sanctity. 

I  have  heard  those  who  ought  to  know 
better  laugh  at  the  silly  jokes  of  a  very  silly 
book,  and  offer  by  way  of  excuse  that  there 
was  nothing  very  bad  in  it.  I  have  heard  teach- 
ers recommend  to  their  pupils  reading  matter 
which,  to  say  the  least,  was  of  a  very  doubt- 
[32] 


ON   THE   CHOICE   OF   BOOKS 

ful  quality  and  devoid  of  all  good.  Now,  the 
only  excuse  that  can  be  offered  in  such  cases 
is  ignorance,  —  "I  didn't  know  there  was  any 
harm  in  the  book."  But  the  teacher  who 
through  ignorance  poisons  the  moral  character 
and  checks  the  mental  growth  of  his  pupils  is 
as  guilty  of  criminal  carelessness  as  the  drug- 
gist's clerk  who  by  mistake  sells  arsenic  for 
quinine.  Step  down  and  out  of  that  responsible 
position  which  you  are  in  no  wise  qualified  to 
fill !  The  direction  of  the  pupils'  habits  of  read- 
ing, the  choice  of  reading  matter  for  them,  is 
by  no  means  the  least  of  the  teacher's  duties. 

The  elder  Pliny,  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago,  was  accustomed  to  say  that  no  book  was 
so  bad  but  that  some  part  of  it  might  be  read 
with  profit.  This  may  have  been  true  in  Pliny's 
time;  but  it  is  very  far  from  correct  nowa- 
days. Very  many  books,  not  a  few  of  which  at- 
tain an  immense  circulation,  are  but  the  em- 
bodiment of  evil  from  beginning  to  end ;  others, 
and  by  far  the  greater  number,  although  not 
absolutely  and  aggressively  bad,  contain  not  a 
[33] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
single  line  that  can  be  read  with  profit.  These 
last  we  may  designate  as  worthless   books  — 
useless  trash. 

What  are  the  sure  criterions  of  a  bad  book  ? 

There  is  no  better  authority  on  this  subject 
than  Dr.  Robert  Collyer.  He  says:  "If  when  I 
read  a  book  about  God,  I  find  that  it  has  put 
Him  farther  from  me ;  or  about  man,  that  it  has 
put  me  farther  from  him ;  or  about  this  universe, 
that  it  has  shaken  down  upon  it  a  new  look 
of  desolation,  turning  a  green  field  into  a  wild 
moor;  or  about  life,  that  it  has  made  it  seem 
a  little  less  worth  living,  on  all  accounts,  than 
it  was  ;  or  about  moral  principles,  that  they 
are  not  quite  so  clear  and  strong  as  they  were 
when  this  author  began  to  talk;  —  then  I  know 
that  on  any  of  these  five  cardinal  things  in  the 
life  of  man,  —  his  relations  to  God,  to  his  fel- 
lows, to  the  world  about  him,  and  the  world 
within  him,  and  the  great  principles  on  which 
all  things  stable  centre, — that,  for  me,  is  a  bad 
book.  It  may  chime  in  with  some  lurking  ap- 
petite in  my  own  nature,  and  so  seem  to  be 
[84] 


ON   THE   CHOICE   OF   BOOKS 

as  sweet  as  honey  to  my  taste;  but  it  comes  to 
bitter,  bad  results.  It  may  be  food  for  another; 
I  can  say  nothing  to  that.  He  may  be  a  pine 
while  I  am  a  palm.  I  only  know  this,  that  in 
these  great  first  things,  if  the  book  I  read  shall 
touch  them  at  all,  it  shall  touch  them  to  my 
profit  or  I  will  not  read  it.  Right  and  wrong 
shall  grow  more  clear;  life  in  and  about  me 
more  divine ;  I  shall  come  nearer  to  my  fellows, 
and  God  nearer  to  me,  or  the  thing  is  a  poison. 
Faust,  or  Calvin,  or  Carlyle,  if  any  one  of  these 
cardinal  things  is  the  grain  and  the  grist  of  the 
book,  and  that  is  what  it  comes  to  when  I  read 
it,  I  am  being  drugged  and  poisoned ;  and  the 
sooner  I  know  it  the  better.  I  want  bread,  and 
meat,  and  milk,  not  brandy,  or  opium,  or  hash- 
eesh."1 

And  Robert  Southey,  the  poet,  expresses 
nearly  the  same  thing:  "Young  readers, — you 
whose  hearts  are  open,  whose  understandings 
are  not  yet  hardened,  and  whose  feelings  are 
not   yet   exhausted    nor    encrusted   with   the 

1  Addresses  and  Sermons. 

[35] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
world, — take  from  me  a  better  rule  than  any 
professors  of  criticism  will  teach  you!  Would 
you  know  whether  the  tendency  of  a  book  is 
good  or  evil,  examine  in  what  state  of  mind 
you  lay  it  down.  Has  it  induced  you  to  sus- 
pect that  what  you  have  been  accustomed  to 
think  unlawful  may  after  all  be  innocent,  and 
that  may  be  harmless  which  you  have  hitherto 
been  taught  to  think  dangerous?  Has  it  tended 
to  make  you  dissatisfied  and  impatient  under 
the  control  of  others,  and  disposed  you  to 
relax  in  that  self-government  without  which 
both  the  laws  of  God  and  man  tell  us  there 
can  be  no  virtue,  and,  consequently,  no  hap- 
piness? Has  it  attempted  to  abate  your  ad- 
miration and  reverence  for  what  is  great  and 
good,  and  to  diminish  in  you  the  love  of  your 
country  and  your  fellow- creatures?  Has  it  ad- 
dressed itself  to  your  pride,  your  vanity,  your 
selfishness,  or  any  other  of  your  evil  propensi- 
ties? Has  it  defiled  the  imagination  with  what 
is  loathsome,  and  shocked  the  heart  with  what 
is  monstrous?  Has  it  disturbed  the  sense  of 
[36] 


ON  THE  CHOICE  OF  BOOKS 
right  and  wrong  which  the  Creator  has  im- 
planted in  the  human  soul?  If  so,  if  you  are 
conscious  of  any  or  all  of  these  effects,  or  if, 
having  escaped  from  all,  you  have  felt  that 
such  were  the  effects  it  was  intended  to  pro- 
duce, throw  the  book  in  the  fire,  whatever 
name  it  may  bear  in  the  title-page!  Throw  it 
in  the  fire,  young  man,  though  it  should  have 
been  the  gift  of  a  friend;  young  lady,  away 
with  the  whole  set,  though  it  should  be  the 
prominent  furniture  of  a  rosewood  bookcase."1 
"It  is  the  case  with  literature  as  with  life," 
says  Arthur  Schopenhauer,  the  German  phi- 
losopher. " Wherever  we  turn  we  come  upon 
the  incorrigible  mob  of  humankind,  whose 
name  is  Legion,  swarming  everywhere,  dam- 
aging everything,  as  flies  in  summer.  Hence 
the  multiplicity  of  bad  books,  those  exuberant 
weeds  of  literature  which  choke  the  true  corn. 
Such  books  rob  the  public  of  time,  money,  and 
attention,  which  ought  properly  to  belong  to 
good  literature  and  noble  aims ;  and  they  are 

1  The  Doctor,  1856. 

[37] 


THE   BOOK*  LOVER 

written  with  a  view  merely  to  make  money  or 
occupation.  They  are  therefore  not  only  use- 
less, but  injurious.  Nine  tenths  of  our  current 
literature  has  no  other  end  but  to  inveigle 
a  thaler  or  two  out  of  the  public  pocket,  for 
which  purpose  author,  publisher,  and  printer 
are  leagued  together.  ...  Of  bad  books  we  can 
never  read  too  little;  of  the  good,  never  too 
much.  The  bad  are  intellectual  poison,  and  un- 
dermine the  understanding."1 

From  Thomas  Carlyle's  inaugural  address  at 
Edinburgh  on  the  occasion  of  his  installation 
as  rector  of  the  University  in  1866,  I  quote 
the  following  potent  passage:  "I  do  not  know 
whether  it  has  been  sufficiently  brought  home 
to  you  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  books. 
When  a  man  is  reading  on  any  kind  of  sub- 
ject, in  most  departments  of  books, — in  all 
books,  if  you  take  it  in  a  wide  sense, — he  will 
find  that  there  is  a  division  into  good  books 
and  bad  books:  everywhere  a  good  kind  of  a 
book  and  a  bad  kind  of  a  book.  I  am  not  to 

1  Parerga  und  Paralipomena,  1851. 
[38] 


ON  THE  CHOICE  OF  BOOKS 
assume  that  you  are  unacquainted  or  ill-ac- 
quainted with  this  plain  fact;  but  I  may  re- 
mind you  that  it  is  becoming  a  very  important 
consideration  in  our  day.  .  .  .  There  is  a  num- 
ber, a  frightfully  increasing  number,  of  books 
that  are  decidedly,  to  the  readers  of  them,  not 
useful.  But  an  ingenious  reader  will  learn,  also, 
that  a  certain  number  of  books  were  written 
by  a  supremely  noble  kind  of  people;  not  a 
very  great  number  of  books,  but  still  a  number 
fit  to  occupy  all  your  reading  industry,  do  ad- 
here more  or  less  to  that  side  of  things.  In 
short,  as  I  have  written  it  down  somewhere 
else,  I  conceive  that  books  are  like  men's 
souls,  divided  into  sheep  and  goats.  Some  few 
are  going  up,  and  carrying  us  up,  heavenward; 
calculated,  I  mean,  to  be  of  priceless  advan- 
tage in  teaching,  —  in  forwarding  the  teaching 
of  all  generations.  Others,  a  frightful  multi- 
tude, are  going  down,  down;  doing  ever  the 
more  and  the  wider  and  the  wilder  mischief. 
Keep  a  strict  eye  on  that  latter  class  of  books, 
my  young  friends!" 

[39] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
Speaking  of  those  books  whose  inward  char- 
acter and  influence  it  is  hard  at  first  to  discern, 
John  Ruskin  says:  "Avoid  especially  that  class 
of  literature  which  has  a  knowing  tone;  it  is 
the  most  poisonous  of  all.  Every  good  book,  or 
piece  of  book,  is  full  of  admiration  and  awe: 
it  may  contain  firm  assertion  or  stern  satire, 
but  it  never  sneers  coldly,  nor  asserts  haugh- 
tily; and  it  always  leads  you  to  reverence  or 
love  something  with  your  whole  heart.  It  is 
not  always  easy  to  distinguish  the  satire  of  the 
venomous  race  of  books  from  the  satire  of  the 
noble  and  pure  ones;  but,  in  general,  you  may 
notice  that  the  cold-blooded,  crustacean  and 
batrachian  books  will  sneer  at  sentiment,  and 
the  warm-blooded,  human  books  at  sin.  .  .  . 
Much  of  the  literature  of  the  present  day, 
though  good  to  be  read  by  persons  of  ripe  age, 
has  a  tendency  to  agitate  rather-  than  confirm, 
and  leaves  its  readers  too  frequently  in  a  help- 
less or  hopeless  indignation,  the  worst  possible 
state  into  which  the  mind  of  youth  can  be 
thrown.  It  may,  indeed,  become  necessary  for 
[40] 


ON  THE  CHOICE  OF  BOOKS 
you,  as  you  advance  in  life,  to  set  your  hand 
to  things  that  need  to  be  altered  in  the  world, 
or  apply  your  heart  chiefly  to  what  must  be 
pitied  in  it,  or  condemned;  but  for  a  young 
person  the  safest  temper  is  one  of  reverence, 
and  the  safest  place  one  of  obscurity.  Certainly 
at  present,  and  perhaps  through  all  your  life, 
your  teachers  are  wisest  when  they  make  you 
content  in  quiet  virtue ;  and  that  literature  and 
art  are  best  for  you  which  point  out,  in  com- 
mon life  and  familiar  things,  the  objects  for 
hopeful  labor  and  for  humble  love."1 

There  would  be  fewer  bad  books  in  the 
world  if  readers  were  properly  informed  and 
warned  of  their  character;  and  we  may  believe 
that  the  really  vicious  books  would  soon  cease 
to  exist  if  their  makers  and  publishers  were 
popularly  regarded  with  the  same  detestation  as 
other  corrupters  of  the  public  morals.  "  He  who 
has  published  an  injurious  book,"  says  Robert 
South,  "sins,  as  it  were  in  his  very  grave;  cor- 
rupts others  while  he  is  rotting  himself." 

1  The  Elements  of  Drawing,  1857. 
[41] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
Addison  says  much  the  same  thing:  "Writ- 
ers of  great  talents,  who  employ  their  parts 
in  propagating  immorality  and  seasoning  vi- 
cious sentiments  with  wit  and  humor,  are  to 
be  looked  upon  as  the  pests  of  society  and 
the  enemies  of  mankind.  They  leave  books 
behind  them  to  scatter  infection  and  destroy 
their  posterity.  They  act  the  counterparts  of  a 
Confucius  or  a  Socrates,  and  seem  to  have  been 
sent  into  the  world  to  deprave  human  nature, 
and  sink  it  into  the  condition  of  brutality."1 

And  William  Cobbett  is  still  more  severe 
in  his  denunciation.  In  his  "Advice  to  Young 
Men,"  he  says:  "I  hope  that  your  taste  will 
keep  you  aloof  from  the  writings  of  those 
detestable  villains  who  employ  the  powers 
of  their  minds  in  debauching  the  minds  of 
others,  or  in  endeavors  to  do  it.  They  present 
their  poison  in  such  captivating  forms  that  it 
requires  great  virtue  and  resolution  to  with- 
stand their  temptations;  and  they  have,  per- 
haps, done  a  thousand  times  as  much  mischief 

1  The  Spectator,  No.  166. 

[42] 


ON   THE   CHOICE   OF   BOOKS 
in  the  world  as  all   the   infidels   and  atheists 
put  together.  These  men  ought  to  be  held  in 
universal  abhorrence,  and  never  spoken  of  but 
with  execration." 

But,  suppose  there  is  no  dissenting  opinion 
concerning  the  harmfulness  of  bad  or  worth- 
less books,  what  means  do  we  employ  to  de- 
tect and  shun  them?  How  many  persons,  after 
all,  take  any  serious  thought  as  to  the  prob- 
able influence  upon  themselves  of  any  books 
which  they  buy?  What,  indeed,  are  the  crite- 
rions  which  determine  our  selection  of  reading 
matter?  In  none  other  of  the  serious  affairs  of 
life  is  there  so  much  indifference,  even  among 
otherwise  sensible  and  judicious  people. 

Too  often  not  the  quality  of  a  book  but  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  presented  to  one's  notice 
determines  its  choice.  Skilful  advertising  and 
unlimited  puffing  have  given  popularity  to  many 
a  worthless  volume.  A  book  may  have  a  phe- 
nomenal sale — may  reach  its  fifth  hundred 
thousand — and  still  be  nothing  but  trash. 
Popularity  is  no  proof  of  merit. 
[43] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
"It  is  of  paramount  importance,"  says  a 
well-known  German  philosopher,  "to  acquire 
the  art  not  to  read ;  in  other  words  of  not  read- 
ing such  books  as  occupy  the  public  mind,  or 
even  those  which  make  a  noise  in  the  world 
and  reach  several  editions  in  their  first  and 
last  year  of  existence.  We  should  recollect 
that  he  who  writes  for  fools  finds  an  immense 
audience."1 

Multitudes  of  people  buy  books  because 
others  are  said  to  buy  them.  It  is  necessary 
only  for  the  publisher  of  a  flimsy  novel  to  an- 
nounce that  ten  thousand  copies  of  that  work 
were  sold  before  publication,  and  twenty  thou- 
sand people  are  at  once  possessed  with  an  in- 
satiable desire  to  purchase  it.  It  matters  not  to 
them  what  the  quality  of  the  book  may  be 
—  that  is  the  last  consideration.  They  care 
only  to  know  that  myriads  of  other  people  of 
the  same  mental  calibre  as  themselves  are 
buying  it. 

Very  shrewd  was  that  advertisement  which 

1  Schopenhauer,  Parerga  und  Paralipomena. 
[44] 


ON  THE  CHOICE  OF  BOOKS 
announced  that  two  hundred  miles  of  paper 
were  used  in  printing  the  first  edition  of  Mr. 
Vestibule  Abel's  latest  novel.  The  book  needed 
no  further  recommendation  —  admitted  of  none. 
Hosts  of  book  buyers,  of  that  judicious  class 
to  which  I  have  alluded,  resolved  forthwith  to 
possess  themselves  of  as  much  of  that  paper  as 
is  contained  in  one  volume  of  the  novel. 

Even  the  size  of  type  which  is  employed 
in  advertising  a  book,  has  great  influence  in 
determining  the  choice  of  certain  buyers.  A 
work  of  very  inferior  merit,  if  heralded  as 
"the  book  of  the  year"  with  its  title  printed 
in  capitals  two  inches  high,  will  be  chosen  in 
preference  to  a  much  better  work  that  is  an- 
nounced with  becoming  modesty  and  truth- 
fulness. Even  people  of  intelligence  and  good 
taste  sometimes  suffer  themselves  to  be  de- 
ceived by  delusive  advertisements  and  mislead- 
ing reviews.  It  is  gratifying  to  know,  however, 
that  books  thus  foisted  upon  the  public  have 
but  short  lives  and  are  soon  forgotten.  The 
true  lover  of  books  will  not  be  deceived;  he 
[45] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
will  choose  for  himself  not  the  latest  "craze" 
but  that  which  is  of  known  worth  and  of  per- 
manent literary  value.  He  will  choose  with  dis- 
crimination, as  he  would  choose  a  friend;  and 
among  the  great  multitude  of  really  worthy  and 
important  books,  surely  he  will  find  enough — 
whether  for  instruction  or  for  pleasure — to 
occupy  all  his  leisure  and  to  fill  the  shelves  of 
his  library  however  ample  they  may  be. 

But,  you  ask,  how  are  we,  even  after  dis- 
carding all  useless  books,  to  select  always 
those  which  are  of  the  highest  value  to  us? 

There  are  perhaps  a  score  of  books  which 
should  be  read  and  studied  by  every  one  who 
claims  the  title  of  reader;  but,  aside  from 
these,  each  person  should  determine,  through 
a  process  of  rigid  self-examination,  what  course 
of  reading  and  what  books  are  likely  to  pro- 
duce the  most  profitable  results  to  him.  Find 
out,  if  possible,  what  is  your  special  bent  of 
mind.  What  line  of  inquiry  or  investigation 
is  the  most  congenial  to  your  taste  or  mental 
capacity?  Having  determined  this  question,  let 
[46] 


ON   THE   CHOICE   OF   BOOKS 

your  reading  all  centre  around  that  topic  of 
study  which  you  have  made  your  own, — 
whether  it  be  literature,  science,  history,  music, 
art,  or  any  of  the  innumerable  subdivisions  of 
these  subjects.  In  other  words,  choose  a  spe- 
cialty, and  follow  it  with  an  eye  single  to  it 
alone. 

The  habit  of  desultory  reading — reading 
simply  to  be  entertained — is  a  habit  not  to  be 
indulged  in  too  frequently  or  to  excess.  To 
the  toil-worn  and  those  overburdened  with 
care  it  often  affords  the  best  means  of  relaxa- 
tion; but  book  lovers  and  scholars  find  their 
truest  pleasure  in  reading  systematically  and 
with  some  definite  aim. 

Says  Frederic  Harrison:  "Every  book  that 
we  take  up  without  a  purpose  is  an  oppor- 
tunity lost  of  taking  up  a  book  with  a  pur- 
pose; every  bit  of  stray  information  which  we 
cram  into  our  heads  without  any  sense  of  its 
importance  is  for  the  most  part  a  bit  of  the 
most  useful  information  driven  out  of  our 
heads  and  choked  off  from  our  minds.  .  .  .  We 
[47] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
know  that  books  differ  in  value  as  much  as 
diamonds  differ  from  the  sand  on  the  sea- 
shore, as  much  as  our  living  friend  differs  from 
a  dead  rat.  We  know  that  much  in  the  myriad- 
peopled  world  of  books — very  much  in  all 
kinds — is  trivial,  enervating,  inane,  even  nox- 
ious. And  thus,  where  we  have  infinite  oppor- 
tunities of  wasting  our  effort  to  no  end,  of 
fatiguing  our  minds  without  enriching  them, 
of  clogging  the  spirit  without  satisfying  it, 
there,  I  cannot  but  think,  the  very  infinity  of 
opportunities  is  robbing  us  of  the  actual  power 
of  using  them.  ...  To  know  anything  that 
turns  up  is,  in  the  infinity  of  knowledge,  to 
know  nothing.  To  read  the  first  book  we  come 
across,  in  the  wilderness  of  books,  is  to  learn 
nothing.  To  turn  over  the  pages  of  ten  thou- 
sand volumes  is  to  be  practically  indifferent  to 
all  that  is  good."  * 

And  John  Ruskin  offers  the  following  perti- 
nent advice  to  beginners :  "  It  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  you,  not  only  for  art's  sake,  but 

1  Fortnightly  Review  (April,  1879). 
[48] 


ON  THE  CHOICE  OF  BOOKS 
for  all  kinds  of  sake,  in  these  days  of  book 
deluge,  to  keep  out  of  the  salt  swamps  of 
literature,  and  live  on  a  little  rocky  island  of 
your  own,  with  a  spring  and  a  lake  in  it,  pure 
and  good.  I  cannot,  of  course,  suggest  the 
choice  of  your  library  to  you,  for  every  several 
mind  needs  different  books;  but  there  are 
some  books  which  we  all  need,  and  assuredly, 
if  you  read  Homer,  Plato,  iEschylus,  Herodo- 
tus, Dante,  Shakespeare,  and  Spenser  as  much 
as  you  ought,  you  will  not  require  wide  en- 
largement of  your  shelves  to  right  and  left  of 
them  for  purposes  of  perpetual  study.  Among 
modern  books,  avoid  generally  magazine  and 
review  literature.  Sometimes  it  may  contain  a 
useful  abridgment  or  a  wholesome  piece  of 
criticism;  but  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  it 
will  either  waste  your  time  or  mislead  you.  If 
you  want  to  understand  any  subject  whatever, 
read  the  best  book  upon  it  you  can  hear  of;  not 
a  review  of  the  book.  ...  A  common  book  will 
often  give  you  much  amusement,  but  it  is  only 
a  noble  book  which  will  give  you  dear  friends." 
[49] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

If  any  of  us  could  recall  the  time  which  we 
have  spent  in  desultory  and  profitless  reading, 
and  devote  it  now  faithfully  to  the  prosecution 
of  that  special  line  of  study  which  ought,  long 
ago,  to  have  been  chosen,  how  largely  we 
might  add  to  our  fund  of  useful  knowledge, 
and  how  grandly  we  might  increase  our  intel- 
lectual stature!  "If  I  could  recover  the  hours 
idly  given  to  the  newspaper,  not  for  my  own 
gratification,  but  solely  for  my  neighbor  at  the 
breakfast  table,"  says  a  contemporary  critic,  "I 
could  compass  a  solid  course  of  English  and 
American  history,  get  at  the  antecedents  of 
political  parties  in  the  two  countries,  and  give 
the  reasons  for  the  existence  of  Gladstone  and 
Parnell,  of  Blaine  and  Edmunds,  in  modern 
politics — and  there  is  undoubtedly  a  reason 
for  them  all.  Two  columns  a  day  in  the  news- 
papers— which  I  could  easily  have  spared,  for 
they  were  given  mainly  to  murder  trials  and 
the  search  for  corpses,  or  to  the  romance  of 
the  reporter  concerning  the  same — have  dur- 
ing the  last  ten  years  absorbed  just  about  the 
[50] 


ON  THE  CHOICE  OF  BOOKS 
time  I  might  have  spent  in  reading  a  very  re- 
spectable course  in  history, — one  embracing, 
say,  Curtius  and  Grote  for  Greece,  Mommsen, 
Merivale,  and  Gibbon  for  Rome,  Macaulay 
and  Green  for  my  roots  in  Saxondom,  Ban- 
croft, Hildreth,  and  Palfrey  for  the  ancestral 
tree  in  America,  together  with  a  very  notable 
excursion  into  Spain  and  Holland  with  Motley 
and  Prescott, — a  course  which  I  consider  very 
desirable,  and  one  which  should  set  up  a 
man  of  middle  age  very  fairly  in  historical 
knowledge.  I  am  sure  I  could  have  saved  this 
amount  out  of  any  ten  years  of  my  newspaper 
reading  alone,  without  cutting  off  any  portion 
of  that  really  valuable  contribution  for  which 
the  daily  paper  is  to  be  honored,  and  which 
would  be  needed  to  make  me  an  intelligent 
man  in  the  history  of  my  own  times."  * 

It  is  not  necessary  that,  in  selecting  a  library 
or  in  choosing  what  you  will  read,  you  should 
have  many  books  at  your  disposal.  A  few  books, 
well  chosen  and  carefully  read,  will  be  of  infi- 

1  James  Herbert  Morse,  in  The  Critic  (July  5,  1884). 
[51] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
nitely  more  value  to  you  than  any  miscella- 
neous and  misused  collection,  however  large. 
It  is  possible  for  "the  man  of  one  book"  to  be 
better  equipped  in  knowledge  and  literary  at- 
tainments than  he  whose  shelves  are  loaded 
with  all  the  fashionable  literature  of  the  day. 
If  your  means  will  not  permit  you  the  lux- 
ury of  a  library,  buy  one  book,  or  a  few  books, 
chosen  with  special  reference  to  the  line  of 
reading  which  you  have  determined  upon.  Let 
no  alluring  advertisement,  plentifully  besprin- 
kled with  superlatives,  entice  you  into  the 
spending  of  money  for  that  which  profiteth 
not.  Turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  honeyed  words  of 
the  book  agent  who  would  persuade  you  that 
tinsel  is  better  than  gold.  Know  for  yourself 
what  will  meet  your  wants  best,  and  choose 
that  only.  You  cannot  afford  to  waste  time 
on  mere  catchpenny  or  machine  publications, 
whose  only  recommendation  is  that  they  are 
harmless  and  that  they  sell  well.  That  man  is 
to  be  envied  who  can  say,  "I  have  a  library  of 
fifty  or  of  a  hundred  volumes,  all  relating  to  my 
[52] 


ON   THE   CHOICE   OF   BOOKS 

chosen  line  of  thought,  and  not  a  single  infe- 
rior or  worthless  book  among  them." 

To  make  a  beginning,  I  beg  to  propose  a 
short  list  of  famous  books,  —  "books  fashioned 
by  the  intellect  of  godlike  men," — books  which 
every  person  who  aspires  to  the  rank  of  thinker 
should  regard  as  his  inheritance  from  the  mas- 
ter minds  of  the  ages.  If  you  know  these  books 
—  or  any  of  them — you  know  something  of 
that  which  is  best  in  the  great  world  of  let- 
ters. "Hard  reading,"  do  you  say?  Perhaps 
they  may  seem  so  at  first,  but  if  you  desire 
wisdom,  you  cannot  afford  to  live  in  ignorance 
of  them.  Of  wisdom,  fiction,  poetry,  what  bet- 
ter collection  could  you  choose? 

Plato's  Dialogues  (Jowett's  translation). 
Herodotus  (Rawlinson's  translation). 
Demosthenes's  Orations  on  the  Crown. 
Bacon's  Essays. 
Macaulay's  Essays. 
Carlyle's  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship. 
Emerson's  Essays. 
Charles  Lamb's  Essays  of  Elia. 
Sir  Walter  Scott's  Ivanhoe. 
[53] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

~  Dickens's  David  Copperfield. 
Thackeray's  Vanity  Fair. 
Blackmore's  Lorna  Doone. 
^s  George  Eliot's  Romola. 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne's  Marble  Faun. 

Washington  Irving's  Sketch  Book. 

Victor  Hugo's  Les  Miserables. 

Cervantes's  Don  Quixote  de  la  Mancha. 

Homer's  Iliad  (Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers's  translation). 

Homer's  Odyssey  (Butcher  and  Lang's  translation). 

jEschylus  (Plumptre's  translation). 

Dante's  Divina  Commedia  (Longfellow's  translation). 

Milton's  Paradise  Lost. 

Shakespeare's  Works. 

Tennyson's  Poems. 

Longfellow's  Poetical  Works. 

Goethe's  Faust  (Bayard  Taylor's  translation). 

I  have  named  but  twenty-five  authors;  but 
each  of  these,  in  his  own  line  of  thought  and 
endeavor,  stands  among  the  first  in  the  long 
procession  of  immortals.  When  you  have  the 
opportunity  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  such 
as  these,  will  you  waste  your  time  with  writers 
whom  you  would  be  ashamed  to  number  among 
your  personal  friends?  "Will  you  go  and  gossip 
[54] 


ON  THE  CHOICE  OF  BOOKS 
with  your  housemaid  or  your  stable  boy,  when 
you  may  talk  with  kings  and  queens,  while 
this  eternal  court  is  open  to  you,  with  its  so- 
ciety wide  as  the  world,  multitudinous  as  its 
days,  the  chosen,  the  mighty,  of  every  place 
and  time?  Into  that  you  may  enter  always;  in 
that  you  may  take  fellowship  and  rank  accord- 
ing to  your  wish ;  from  that,  once  entered  into 
it,  you  can  never  be  outcast  but  by  your  own 
fault;  by  your  aristocracy  of  companionship 
there,  your  inherent  aristocracy  will  be  as- 
suredly tested,  and  the  motives  with  which 
you  strive  to  take  high  place  in  the  society  of 
the  living,  measured,  as  to  all  the  truth  and 
sincerity  that  are  in  them,  by  the  place  you 
desire  to  take  in  this  company  of  the  dead. 

"The  place  you  desire  —  and  the  place  you 
fit  yourself  for,  I  must  also  say.  Because,  ob- 
serve, this  court  of  the  past  differs  from  all 
living  aristocracy  in  this:  —  it  is  open  to  labor 
and  merit,  but  to  nothing  else.  No  wealth  will 
bribe,  no  name  overawe,  no  artifice  deceive 
the  guardian  of  those  Elysian  gates.  In  the 
[55] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

deep  sense,  no  vile  or  vulgar  person  ever  en- 
ters there.  .  .  .  Do  you  ask  to  be  the  com- 
panion of  nobles?  Make  yourself  noble,  and 
you  shall  be.  Do  you  long  for  the  conversation 
of  the  wise?  Learn  to  understand  it,  and  you 
shall  hear  it.  But  on  other  terms? — no."1 

1  John  Ruskin,  Sesame  and  Lilies. 


[56] 


HOW   TO   READ 


And  as  for  me,  though  I  con  but  lite, 

On  bookes  for  to  rede  I  me  delite, 

And  to  hem  yeve  I  faith  and  credence, 

And  in  my  herte  have  hem  in  reverence 

So  hertely,  that  there  is  game  none. 

That  from  my  bookes  maketh  me  to  gone, 

But  it  be  seldome  on  the  holy  daie, 

Save  certainly,  whan  that  the  month  of  May 

Is  comen,  and  that  I  heare  the  foules  sing, 

And  that  the  floures  ginnan  for  to  spring, 

Farwell  my  booke,  and  my  devotion. 

Geoffrey  Chaucer 


CHAPTER  II 
HOW   TO    READ 

HAVING  chosen  some  of  the  books  that 
are  to  be  our  friends  and  counsellors,  the 
next  question  to  be  considered  is,  How  shall 
we  use  them?  Shall  we  read  them  through  as 
hastily  as  possible,  believing  that  the  more 
we  read,  the  more  learned  we  are?  Or  shall 
we  not  derive  more  profit  by  reading  slowly, 
and  by  making  the  subject-matter  of  each 
book  thoroughly  our  o?vn? 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  general  rule  can 
be  given  with  reference  to  this  matter.  Some 
readers  will  take  in  a  page  at  a  glance,  and 
will  more  thoroughly  master  a  book  in  a  week 
than  others  could  possibly  master  it  in  six 
months.  It  required  Frederick  W.  Robertson 
half  a  year  to  read  a  small  manual  of  chem- 
istry, and  thoroughly  to  digest  its  contents. 
Miss  Martineau  and  Auguste  Comte  were  re- 
markably slow  readers;  but  then,  that  which 
[59] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
they  read  "lay  fructifying,  and    came   out  a 
living  tree  with  leaves  and  fruit."  Yet  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  same  rule  should  apply  to 
readers  of  every  grade  of  genius. 

It  is  generally  better  to  read  by  subjects,  to 
learn  what  different  writers  have  thought  and 
said  concerning  that  matter  of  which  you  are 
making  a  special  study.  Not  all  books  are  to 
be  read  through. 

"A  person  who  was  a  very  great  reader  and 
hard  thinker,"  says  Bishop  Thirl  wall,  "once 
told  me  that  he  never  took  up  a  book  except 
with  the  view  of  making  himself  master  of 
some  subject  which  he  was  studying,  and  that 
while  he  was  so  engaged  he  made  all  his  read- 
ing converge  to  that  point.  In  this  way  he 
might  read  parts  of  many  books,  but  not  a 
single  one  from  'end  to  end.'  This  I  take  to  be 
an  excellent  method  of  study,  but  one  which 
implies  the  command  of  many  books  as  well  as 
of  much  leisure." 

Seneca,  the  old  Roman  teacher,  says:  " Defi- 
nite reading  is  profitable;  miscellaneous  read- 
[60] 


HOW   TO   READ 
ing   is  pleasant.   .   .   .   The   reading  of  many 
authors  and  of  all  kinds  of  works  has  in  it 
something  vague  and  unstable." 

Says  Quintilian:  "  Every  good  writer  is  to  be 
read,  and  diligently;  and  when  the  volume  is 
finished,  it  is  to  be  gone  through  again  from 
the  beginning." 

Martin  Luther,  in  his  "Table  Talk,"  says: 
"All  who  would  study  with  advantage  in  any 
art  whatsoever  ought  to  betake  themselves  to 
the  reading  of  some  sure  and  certain  books 
oftentimes  over;  for  to  read  many  books  pro- 
duceth  confusion  rather  than  learning,  like  as 
those  who  dwell  everywhere  are  not  anywhere 
at  home." 

"Reading,"  says  Locke  the  philosopher,  "fur- 
nishes the  mind  only  with  materials  of  knowl- 
edge; it  is  thinking  that  makes  what  is  read 
ours.  We  are  of  the  ruminating  kind,  and  it 
is  not  enough  to  cram  ourselves  with  a  great 
load  of  collections ;  unless  we  chew  them  over 
again,  they  will  not  give  us  strength  and  nour- 
ishment." 

[61] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 
"Much    reading,"    says  Dr.    Robert    South, 
"is  like  much  eating, — wholly  useless  without 
digestion." 

f  Desultory  reading,"  writes  Julius  C.  Hare, 
"is  indeed  very  mischievous,  by  fostering 
habits  of  loose,  discontinuous  thought,  by  turn- 
ing the  memory  into  a  common  sewer  for  rub- 
bish of  all  thoughts  to  flow  through,  and  by 
relaxing  the  power  of  attention,  which  of  all 
our  faculties  most  needs  care,  and  is  most 
improved  by  it.  But  a  well-regulated  course 
of  study  will  no  more  weaken  the  mind  than 
hard  exercise  will  weaken  the  body;  nor  will 
a  strong  understanding  be  weighed  down  by 
its  knowledge,  any  more  than  oak  is  by  its 
leaves  or  than  Samson  was  by  his  locks.  He 
whose  sinews  are  drained  by  his  hair  must  al- 
ready be  a  weakling."  l 

Says  Thomas  Carlyle:  "Leam  to  be  good 
readers, — which  is  perhaps  a  more  difficult 
thing  than  you  imagine.  Learn  to  be  discrimi- 
native in  your  reading;  to  read  faithfully,  and 

1  Guesses  at  Truth,  by  Two  Brothers,  1848 
[62] 


HOW  TO  READ 
with  your  best  attention,  all  kinds  of  things 
which  you  have  a  real  interest  in, — a  real, 
not  an  imaginary, — and  which  you  find  to  be 
really  fit  for  what  you  are  engaged  in.  The 
most  unhappy  of  all  men  is  the  man  who  can- 
not tell  what  he  is  going  to  do,  who  has  got 
no  work  cut  out  for  him  in  the  world,  and 
does  not  go  into  it.  For  work  is  the  grand 
cure  of  all  the  maladies  and  miseries  that  ever 
beset  mankind, — honest  work,  which  you  in- 
tend getting  done." 

Says  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson:  "The  best  rule 
of  reading  will  be  a  method  from  nature,  and 
not  a  mechanical  one  of  hours  and  pages.  It 
holds  each  student  to  a  pursuit  of  his  native 
aim,  instead  of  a  desultory  miscellany.  Let  him 
read  what  is  proper  to  him,  and  not  waste  his 
memory  on  a  crowd  of  mediocrities.  .  .  .  The 
three  practical  rules  which  I  have  to  offer  are: 

1.  Never  read  any  book  that  is  not  a  year  old. 

2.  Never  read  any  but  famed  books.  3.  Never 
read  any  but  what  you  like ;  or,  in  Shakspeare's 
phrase, — 

[63] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

*  No  profit  goes  where  is  no  pleasure  ta'en : 
In  brief,  sir,  study  what  you  most  affect.'"1 

"Let  us  read  good  works  often  over/'  says 
another  writer.2  "Some  skip  from  volume  to 
volume,  touching  on  all  points,  resting  on 
none.  We  hold,  on  the  contrary,  that  if  a  book 
be  worth  reading  once,  it  is  worth  reading 
twice,  and  that  if  it  stands  a  second  reading, 
it  may  stand  a  third.  This,  indeed,  is  one  great 
test  of  the  excellence  of  books.  Many  books 
require  to  be  read  more  than  once,  in  order 
to  be  seen  in  their  proper  colors  and  latent 
glories,  and  dim-discovered  truths  will  by- 
and-by  disclose  themselves.  .  .  .  Again,  let  us 
read  thoughtfully;  this  is  a  great  secret  in  the 
right  use  of  books.  Not  lazily,  to  mumble,  like 
the  dogs  in  the  siege  of  Corinth,  as  dead 
bones,  the  words  of  the  author, — not  slavishly 
to  assent  to  his  every  word,  and  cry  Amen  to 
his  every  conclusion, — not  to  read  him  as  an 
officer  his  general's  orders,  but  to  read  him 
with  suspicion,  with  inquiry,  with  a  free  exer- 

1  Society  and  Solitude.   2  George  Gilfillan. 
[64] 


HOW  TO  READ 
cise  of  your  own  faculties,  with  the  admiration 
of  intelligence,  and  not  with  the  wonder  of 
ignorance, — that  is  the  proper  and  profitable 
way  of  reading  the  great  authors  of  your  native 
tongue." 

Says  Sir  Arthur  Helps:  "There  is  another 
view  of  reading  which,  though  it  is  obvious 
enough,  is  seldom  taken,  I  imagine,  or  at  least 
acted  upon;  and  that  is,  that  in  the  course  of 
our  reading  we  should  lay  up  in  our  minds 
a  store  of  goodly  thoughts  in  well-wrought 
words,  which  should  be  a  living  treasure  of 
knowledge  always  with  us,  and  from  which,  at 
various  times  and  amidst  all  the  shifting  of  cir- 
cumstances, we  might  be  sure  of  drawing  some 
comfort,  guidance,  and  sympathy.  ...  In  any 
work  that  is  worth  carefully  reading,  there  is 
generally  something  that  is  worth  remember- 
ing accurately.  A  man  whose  mind  is  enriched 
with  the  best  sayings  of  his  own  country  is  a 
more  independent  man,  walks  the  streets  in 
a  town  or  the  lanes  in  the  country  with  far 
more  delight  than  he  otherwise  would  have, 
[65] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 

and  is  taught  by  wise  observers  of  man  and 
nature  to  examine  for  himself.  Sancho  Panza, 
with  his  proverbs,  is  a  great  deal  better  than 
he  would  have  been  without  them;  and  I  con- 
tend that  a  man  has  something  in  himself  to 
meet  troubles  and  difficulties,  small  or  great, 
who  has  stored  in  his  mind  some  of  the  best 
things  which  have  been  said  about  troubles 
and  difficulties."  x 

And  John  Ruskin:  "No  book  is  worth  any- 
thing which  is  not  worth  much;  nor  is  it  ser- 
viceable until  it  has  been  read,  and  re-read, 
and  loved,  and  loved  again;  and  marked,  so 
that  you  can  refer  to  the  passages  you  want 
in  it,  as  a  soldier  can  seize  the  weapons  he 
needs  in  an  armory,  or  a  housewife  bring  the 
spice  she  needs  from  her  store." 

"I  am  not  at  all  afraid,"  says  Matthew 
Browne,  "of  urging  overmuch  the  propriety 
of  frequent,  very  frequent,  reading  of  the  same 
book.  The  book  remains  the  same,  but  the 
reader  changes;  and  the  value  of  reading  lies 

1  Friends  in  Council. 

[60] 


HOW  TO  READ 
in  the  collision  of  minds.  It  may  be  taken  for 
granted  that  no  conceivable  amount  of  read- 
ing could  ever  put  me  into  the  position  with 
respect  to  his  book — I  mean  as  to  intelligence 
only — in  which  the  author  strove  to  place 
me.  I  may  read  him  a  hundred  times,  and  not 
catch  the  precise  right  point  of  view;  and  may 
read  him  a  hundred  and  one  times,  and  ap- 
proach it  the  hundred  and  first.  The  driest 
and  hardest  book  that  ever  was,  contains  an 
interest. over  and  above  what  can  be  picked 
out  of  it,  and  laid,  so  to  speak,  on  the  table. 
It  is  interesting  as  my  friend  is  interesting;  it 
is  a  problem  which  invites  me  to  closer  knowl- 
edge, and  that  usually  means  better  liking.  He 
must  be  a  poor  friend  that  we  only  care  to 
see  once  or  twice,  and  then  forget."  l 

"The  great  secret  of  reading  consists  in 
this,"  says  an  American  critic,  "that  it  does 
not  matter  so  much  what  we  read,  or  how  we 
read  it,  as  what  we  think  and  how  we  think 
it.    Reading  is  only  the  fuel;  and,  the  mind 

1  Views  and  Opinions. 

[67] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
once  on  fire,  any  and  all  material  will  feed  the 
flame,  provided  only  it  have  any  combustible 
matter  in  it.  And  we  cannot  tell  from  what 
quarter  the  next  material  will  come.  The 
thought  we  need,  the  facts  we  are  in  search 
of,  may  make  their  appearance  in  the  corner 
of  the  newspaper,  or  in  some  forgotten  volume 
long  ago  consigned  to  dust  and  oblivion.  .  .  . 
The  mind  that  is  not  awake  and  alive  will 
find  a  library  a  barren  wilderness.  Now,  gather 
up  the  scraps  and  fragments  of  thought  on 
whatever  subject  you  may  be  studying, — for 
of  course  by  a  notebook  I  do  not  mean  a 
mere  receptacle  for  odds  and  ends,  a  literary 
dust  bin, — but  acquire  the  habit  of  gathering 
everything  whenever  and  wherever  you  find  it, 
that  belongs  in  your  line  or  lines  of  study,  and 
you  will  be  surprised  to  see  how  such  frag- 
ments will  arrange  themselves  into  an  orderly 
whole  by  the  very  organizing  power  of  your 
own  thinking,  acting  in  a  definite  direction. 
This  is  a  true  process  of  self-education;  but 
you  see  it  is  no  mechanical  process  of  mere 
[68] 


HOW  TO  READ 
aggregation.  It  requires  activity  of  thought; 
but  without  that,  what  is  any  reading  but  mere 
passive  amusement?  And  it  requires  method.  I 
have  myself  a  sort  of  literary  bookkeeping. 
I  post  my  literary  accounts,  bringing  together 
in  proper  groups  the  fruits  of  much  casual 
reading."  1 

Edward  Gibbon  the  historian  tells  us  that 
a  taste  for  books  was  the  pleasure  and  glory  of 
his  life.  "Let  us  read  with  method/'  he  says, 
"and  propose  to  ourselves  an  end  to  which  our 
studies  may  point.  The  use  of  reading  is  to  aid 
us  in  thinking." 

Among  practical  suggestions  to  those  who 
would  read  for  profit,  I  have  found  nothing 
more  pertinent  than  the  following  from  the 
posthumous  papers  of  Biyan  Waller  Procter: 
"Always  read  the  preface  to  a  book.  It  places 
you  on  vantage  ground,  and  enables  you  to 
survey  more  completely  the  book  itself.  You 
frequently  also  discover  the  character  of  the 
author  from   the  preface.   You  see  his  aims, 

1  C.  F.  Richardson,  The  Choice  of  Books. 
[69]    " 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

perhaps  his  prejudices.  You  see  the  point  of 
view  from  which  he  takes  his  pictures,  the 
rocks  and  impediments  which  he  himself  be- 
holds, and  you  steer  accordingly.  .  .  .  Under- 
stand every  word  you  read;  if  possible,  every' 
allusion  of  the  author, — if  practicable,  while 
you  are  reading;  if  not,  make  search  and  in- 
quiry as  soon  as  may  be  afterward.  Have  a 
dictionary  near  you  when  you  read;  and  when 
you  read  a  book  of  travels,  always  read  with  a 
map  of  the  country  at  hand.  Without  a  map 
the  information  is  vague  and  transitory.  .  .  . 
After  having  read  as  much  as  your  mind  will 
easily  retain,  sum  up  what  you  have  read, — 
endeavor  to  place  in  view  the  portion  or  sub- 
ject that  has  formed  your  morning's  study; 
,  and  then  reckon  up  (as  you  would  reckon  up 
a  sum)  the  facts  or  items  of  knowledge  that 
you  have  gained.  It  generally  happens  that 
the  amount  of  three  or  four  hours'  reading 
may  be  reduced  to  and  concentrated  in  half  a 
dozen  propositions.  These  are  your  gains, — 
these  are  the  facts  or  opinions  that  you  have 
[70] 


HOW  TO  READ 
acquired.  You  may  investigate  the  truth  of 
them  hereafter.  Although  I  think  that  one's 
general  reading  should  extend  over  many  sub- 
jects, yet  for  serious  study  we  should  confine 
ourselves  to  some  branch  of  literature  or 
science.  Otherwise  the  mind  becomes  con- 
fused and  enfeebled,  and  the  thoughts,  dissi- 
pated on  many  things,  will  settle  profitably  on 
none.  A  man  whose  duration  of  life  is  limited, 
and  whose  powers  are  limited  also,  should  not 
aim  at  all  things,  but  should  content  himself 
with  a  few.  By  such  means  he.  may  master  one, 
and  become  tolerably  familiar  perhaps  with 
two  or  three  arts  or  sciences.  He  may  indeed 
even  make  valuable  contributions  to  them. 
Without  this  economy  of  labor,  he  cannot  pro- 
duce any  complete  work,  nor  can  he  exhaust 
any  subject."  l 

Every  person  is  familiar  with  Lord  Bacon's 
classification  of  books, — some  "to  be  tasted, 
others  to  be  swallowed,  and  some  few  to  be 

1  Temple  Bar  (September,  1884),  —  "Barry  Cornwall 
on  the  Reading  of  Books ." 

[71] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
chewed  and  digested:  that  is,  some  books  are 
to  be  read  only  in  parts;  others  to  be  read, 
but  not  curiously;  and  some  few  to  be  read 
wholly,  and  with  diligence  and  attention." 
Coleridge's  classification  of  the  various  kinds 
of  readers  is  perhaps  not  quite  so  well  known. 
He  said  that  some  readers  are  like  jelly-bags, 
—  they  let  pass  away  all  that  is  pure  and  good, 
and  retain  only  what  is  impure  and  refuse. 
Another  class  he  typified  by  a  sponge;  these 
are  they  whose  minds  suck  all  up,  and  give  it 
back  again,  only  a  little  dirtier.  Others,  again, 
he  likened  to  an  hourglass,  and  their  reading 
to  the  sand  which  runs  in  and  out,  and  leaves 
no  trace  behind.  And  still  others  he  compared 
to  the  slave  in  the  Golconda  mines,  who  re- 
tains the  gold  and  the  gems,  and  casts  aside 
the  dust  and  the  dross. 

Charles  C.  Col  ton,  the  author  of  "Lacon," 
says  there  are  three  kinds  of  readers:  first, 
those  who  read  to  think, — and  they  are  rare; 
second,  those  who  read  to  write, — and  they 
are  common;  third,  those  who  read  to  talk, — 
[72] 


HOW  TO  READ 
and  they  form  the  great  majority.  And  Goethe, 
the  greatest  name  in  German  literature,  makes 
still  a  different  classification:  some  readers,  he 
tells  us,  enjoy  without  judgment;  others  judge 
without  enjoyment;  and  some  there  are  who 
judge  while  they  enjoy,  and  enjoy  while  they 
judge. 

In  these  days,  when,  so  far  as  reading 
matter  is  concerned,  we  are  overburdened 
with  an  embarrassment  of  riches,  we  cannot 
afford  to  read,  even  in  the  books  which  we 
have  chosen  as  ours,  those  things  that  have 
no  relationship  to  our  studies,  that  do  not  up- 
lift or  improve  us,  or  that  are  sure  to  be  for- 
gotten as  soon  as  read.  The  art  of  reading,  says 
Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton  in  one  of  his  admi- 
rable essays  in  "The  Intellectual  Life,"  "is  to 
skip  judiciously.  The  art  is  to  skip  all  that  does 
not  concern  us,  whilst  missing  nothing  that  we 
really  need.  No  external  guidance  can  teach 
this;  for  nobody  but  ourselves  can  guess  what 
the  needs  of  our  intellect  may  be.  But  let  us 
select  with  decisive  firmness,  independently  of 
[73] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
other  people's  advice,  independently  of  the 
authority  of  custom."  And  Charles  F.  Richard- 
son, referring  to  the  same  subject,  remarks: 
"The  art  of  skipping  is,  in  a  word,  the  art  of 
noting  and  shunning  that  which  is  bad,  or 
frivolous,  or  misleading,  or  unsuitable  for  one's 
individual  needs.  If  you  are  convinced  that  the 
book  or  the  chapter  is  bad,  you  cannot  drop 
it  too  quickly.  If  it  is  simply  idle  and  foolish, 
put  it  away  on  that  account, — unless  you  are 
properly  seeking  amusement  from  idleness  and 
frivolity.  If  it  is  something  deceitful  and  dis- 
ingenuous, your  task  is  not  so  easy;  but  your 
conscience  will  give  you  warning,  and  the 
sharp  examination  which  should  follow  will 
tell  you  that  you  are  in  poor  literary  company." 


[74] 


ON   THE   VALUE   AND 
USE   OF   LIBRARIES 


All  round  the  room  my  silent  servants  wait,  — 

My  friends  in  every  season,  bright  and  dim 

Angels  and  seraphim 

Come  down  and  murmur  to  me,  sweet  and  low, 

And  spirits  of  the  skies  all  come  and  go 

Early  and  late ; 

From  the  old  world's  divine  and  distant  date, 

From  the  sublimer  few, 

Down  to  the  poet  who  but  yester-eve 

Sang  sweet  and  made  us  grieve, 

All  come,  assembling  here  in  order  due. 

And  here  I  dwell  with  Poesy,  my  mate, 

With  Erato  and  all  her  vernal  sighs, 

Great  Clio  with  her  victories  elate, 

Or  pale  Urania's  deep  and  starry  eyes. 

Bryan  Waller  Procter 


CHAPTER   III 

ON  THE  VALUE  AND  USE  OF  LIBRARIES 

A  LIBRARY  is  the  scholar's  workshop;  it  is 
the  teacher's  assistant;  it  is  the  profes- 
sional man's  chief  outfit.  To  the  true  book  lover 
it  is  much  more:  it  is  a  paradise  of  delights 
wherein  are  contained  those  things  that  in- 
form the  mind,  stimulate  the  understanding, 
cultivate  the  heart,  and  uplift  the  soul.  Any 
good  collection  of  books  may  give  you  pleasure 
—  may  contain  the  means  whereby  you  can  add 
to  your  knowledge.  But  you  can  never  know 
the  true  value  of  such  a  collection,  you  can 
never  experience  the  wealth  of  happiness  which 
books  can  give,  until  you  possess  a  library  that 
is  all  your  own.  A  very  few  volumes  will  do,  if 
they  are  of  the  right  kind  —  and  if  they  are 
yours.  A  borrowed  book  is  but  a  cheap  pleasure, 
an  unappreciated  and  unsatisfactory  tool.  To 
know  the  true  value  of  books,  and  to  derive 
any  satisfactory  benefit  from  them,  you  must 
[77] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 
first  feel  the  sweet  delight  of  buying  them, — 
you  must  know  the  preciousness  of  possession. 

You  plead  poverty,  —  the  insufficiency  of 
your  income?  But  do  you  not  spend  for  other 
things,  entirely  unnecessary,  much  more  every 
year  than  the  cost  of  a  few  books  ?  The  imme- 
diate outlay  need  not  be  large,  the  returns 
which  you  will  realize  will  be  great  in  propor- 
tion to  your  good  judgment  and  earnestness. 
Not  only  will  the  possession  of  a  good  library 
add  to  your  means  of  enjoyment  and  increase 
your  capacity  for  doing  good,  it  may,  if  you  are 
worldly-minded,  —  and  who  is  not?  —  put  you  in 
the  way  of  occupying  a  more  desirable  position 
and  earning  a  more  satisfactory  reward  for  your 
labors. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  books  that  you  will 
need  in  your  library:  first,  those  which  repre- 
sent the  highest  and  best  achievements  of  the 
master  minds  of  the  ages ;  second,  those  which 
are  valuable  only  for  the  information  contained 
in  them  or  for  their  connection  with  that  de- 
partment of  the  world's  work  which  is  your 
[78] 


THE  VALUE  AND  USE  OF  LIBRARIES 
own.  The  former  will  be  your  friends,  your 
companions,  your  counsellors;  the  latter  you 
may  regard  as  the  tools  of  your  craft,  to  be 
used  as  occasion  demands.  The  former  we  may 
designate  as  books  of  power;  the  latter  as  books 
of  the  workshop. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  dictate  to  you  what 
books  you  shall  choose.  The  lists  given  in  the 
chapters  which  follow  this  are  designed  simply 
as  suggestive  aids.  As  for  the  rest,  you  must 
depend  upon  your  own  judgment  and  good 
taste.  If  you  are  wise,  you  may,  in  a  library  of 
fifty  or  even  thirty  well-chosen  volumes,  pos- 
sess infinite  riches  and  means  for  a  lifetime  of 
enjoyment;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  you 
are  injudicious,  you  may  expend  thousands  of 
dollars  for  a  collection  of  the  odds  and  ends  of 
literature,  which  will  be  only  an  incumbrance 
and  a  hindrance  to  you. 

"I  would  urge   upon   every  young  man,  as 

the  beginning  of  his  due  and  wise  provision 

for    his    household/'    says   John    Ruskin,   "to 

obtain    as    soon   as   he   can,   by   the    severest 

[79] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
economy,  a  restricted,  serviceable,  and  steadily 
— however  slowly — increasing  series  of  books 
for  use  through  life;  making  his  little  library, 
of  all  the  furniture  in  his  room,  the  most 
studied  and  decorative  piece;  every  volume 
having  its  assigned  place,  like  a  little  statue  in 
its  niche,  and  one  of  the  earliest  and  strictest 
lessons  to  the  children  of  the  house  being  how 
to  turn  the  pages  of  their  own  literary  posses- 
sions lightly  and  deliberately,  with  no  chance 
of  tearing  or  dog's-ears."  1 

And  Henry  Ward  Beecher  emphasizes  the 
same  idea,  remarking  that,  among  the  early 
ambitions  to  be  excited  in  clerks,  workmen, 
journeymen,  and  indeed  among  all  that  are 
struggling  up  in  life  from  nothing  to  some- 
thing, the  most  important  is  that  of  forming 
and  continually  adding  to  a  library  of  good 
books.  "A  little  library,  growing  larger  every 
year,  is  an  honorable  part  of  a  man's  history.  It 
is  a  man's  duty  to  have  books.  A  library  is  not 
a  luxury,  but  one  of  the  necessaries  of  life." 

1  Sesame  and  Lilies. 

[80] 


THE  VALUE  AND  USE  OF  LIBRARIES 
"How  much  do  you  think  we  spend  alto- 
gether on  our  libraries,  public  or  private,  as 
compared  with  what  we  spend  on  our  horses?" 
asks  another  enthusiastic  lover  of  books,  al- 
ready quoted.  "  If  a  man  spends  lavishly  on  his 
library,  you  call  him  mad, — a  bibliomaniac. 
But  you  never  call  any  one  a  horse-maniac, 
though  men  ruin  themselves  every  day  by 
their  horses,  and  you  do  not  hear  of  people 
ruining  themselves  by  their  books.  .  .  .  We 
talk  of  food  for  the  mind,  as  of  food  for  the 
body:  now,  a  good  book  contains  such  food 
inexhaustibly;  it  is  a  provision  for  life,  and  for 
the  best  of  us;  yet  how  long  most  people 
would  look  at  the  best  book  before  they  would 
give  the  price  of  a  large  turbot  for  it!  Though 
there  have  been  men  who  have  pinched  their 
stomachs  and  bared  their  backs  to  buy  a  book, 
whose  libraries  were  cheaper  to  them,  I  think, 
in  the  end  than  most  men's  dinners  are.  We 
are  few  of  us  put  to  such  trial,  and  more  the 
pity:  for,  indeed,  a  precious  thing  is  all  the 
more  precious  to  us  if  it  has  been  won  by  work 
[81] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
or  economy;  and  if  public  libraries  were  half 
as  costly  as  public  dinners,  or  books  cost  the 
tenth  part  of  what  bracelets  do,  even  foolish 
men  and  women  might  sometimes  suspect 
there  was  good  in  reading,  as  well  as  in 
munching  and  sparkling;  whereas  the  very 
cheapness  of  literature  is  making  even  wise 
people  forget  that  if  a  book  is  worth  reading, 
it  is  worth  buying." 

"The  truest  owner  of  a  library,"  says  the 
author  of  "Hesperides,"  "is  he  who  has  bought 
each  book  for  the  love  he  bears  to  it, — who 
is  happy  and  content  to  say,  'Here  are  my 
jewels,  my  choicest  material  possessions!'  — 
who  is  proud  to  crown  such  assertion  thus: 
<I  am  content  that  this  library  shall  represent 
the  use  of  the  talents  given  me  by  Heaven!' 
That  man's  library,  though  not  commensurate 
with  his  love  for  books,  will  demonstrate  what 
he  has  been  able  to  accomplish  with  his  re- 
sources; it  will  denote  economy  of  living, 
eagerness  to  possess  the  particles  that  com- 
pose his  library,  and  quick  watchfulness  to 
[82] 


THE  VALUE  AND  USE  OF  LIBRARIES 
seize  them  when  means  and  opportunities 
serve.  Such  a  man  has  built  a  temple,  of 
which  each  brick  has  been  the  subject  of 
curious  and  acute  intelligent  examination  and 
appreciation  before  it  has  been  placed  in  the 
sacred  building." 

"Every  man  should  have  a  library!"  ex- 
claims William  Axon.  "The  works  of  the 
grandest  masters  of  literature  may  now  be 
procured  at  prices  that  place  them  within 
the  reach  almost  of  the  very  poorest,  and  we 
may  all  put  Parnassian  singing-birds  into  our 
chambers  to  cheer  us  with  the  sweetness  of 
their  songs.  And  when  we  have  got  our  little 
library  we  may  look  proudly  at  Shakespeare 
and  Bacon  and  Bunyan,  as  they  stand  in  our 
bookcase  with  other  noble  spirits  of  whom  the 
world  knows  nothing,  but  whose  worth  we  have 
often  tested.  These  may  cheer  and  enlighten 
us,  may  inspire  us  with  higher  aims  and  aspira- 
tions, may  make  us,  if  we  use  them  rightly, 
wiser  and  better  men."1 

1  Meliora  (October,  1867). 

[83] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
Good  old  George  Dyer,  the  friend  of  the 
poet  Southey,  as  learned  as  he  was  benevo- 
lent, was  wont  to  say:  "Libraries  are  the 
wardrobes  of  literature,  whence  men,  properly 
informed,  may  bring  forth  something  for  or- 
nament, much  for  curiosity,  and  more  for  use." 
"Any  library  is  an  attraction,"  says  the  ven- 
erable A.  Bronson  Alcott;  and  Victor  Hugo 
writes:  — 

"  A  library  implies  an  act  of  faith, 
Which  generations  still  in  darkness  hid 
Sign  in  their  night  in  witness  of  the  dawn." 

John  Bright,  the  great  English  statesman 
and  reformer,  in  a  speech  at  the  opening  of 
the  Birmingham  Free  Library,  remarked:  "You 
may  have  in  a  house  costly  pictures  and  costly 
ornaments,  and  a  great  variety  of  decoration; 
yet,  so  far  as  my  judgment  goes,  I  would  pre- 
fer to  have  one  comfortable  room  well  stocked 
with  books  to  all  you  can  give  me  in  the  way 
of  decoration  which  the  highest  art  can  supply. 
The  only  subject  of  lamentation  is — one  feels 
that  always,  I  think,  in  the  presence  of  a 
[84] 


THE  VALUE  AND  USE  OF  LIBRARIES 
library — that  life  is  too  short,  and  I  am  afraid 
I  must  say  also  that  our  industry  is  so  far  de- 
ficient that  we  seem  to  have  no  hope  of  a  full 
enjoyment  of  the  ample  repast  that  is  spread 
before  us.  In  the  houses  of  the  humble  a  little 
library,  in  my  opinion,  is  a  most  precious  posses- 
sion." 

Jean  Paul  Richter,  it  is  said,  was  always 
melancholy  in  a  large  library,  because  it  re- 
minded him  of  his  ignorance. 

"A  library  may  be  regarded  as  the  solemn 
chamber  in  which  a  man  can  take  counsel  of 
all  that  have  been  wise  and  great  and  good 
and  glorious  amongst  the  men  that  have  gone 
before  him,"  said  George  Dawson,  also  at  Bir- 
mingham. "If  we  come  down  for  a  moment 
and  look  at  the  bare  and  immediate  utilities  of 
a  library,  we  find  that  here  a  man  gets  himself 
ready  for  his  calling,  arms  himself  for  his  pro- 
fession, finds  out  the  facts  that  are  to  deter- 
mine his  trade,  prepares  himself  for  his  ex- 
amination. The  utilities  of  it  are  endless  and 
priceless.  It  is,  too,  a  place  of  pastime ;  for  man 
[85] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

has  no  amusement  more  innocent,  more  sweet, 
more  gracious,  more  elevating,  and  more  for- 
tifying than  he  can  find  in  a  library.  If  he 
be  fond  of  books,  his  fondness  will  discipline 
him  as  well  as  amuse  him.  ...  A  library  is  the 
strengthener  of  all  that  is  great  in  life,  and  the 
repeller  of  what  is  petty  and  mean;  and  half 
the  gossip  of  society  would  perish  if  the  books 
that  are  truly  worth  reading  were  read.  .  .  . 
When  we  look  through  the  houses  of  a  large 
part  of  the  middle  classes  of  this  country,  we 
find  there  everything  but  what  there  ought 
most  to  be.  There  are  no  books  in  them  worth 
talking  of.  If  a  question  arises  of  geography, 
they  have  no  atlases.  If  the  question  be  when 
a  great  man  was  born,  they  cannot  help  you. 
They  can  give  you  a  gorgeous  bed,  with  four 
posts,  marvellous  adornments,  luxurious  hang- 
ings, and  lacquered  shams  all  round;  they  can 
give  you  dinners  ad  nauseam,  and  wine  that 
one  can,  or  cannot,  honestly  praise.  But  useful 
books  are  almost  the  last  things  that  are  to  be 
found  there;  and  when  the  mind  is  empty  of 
[86] 


THE  VALUE  AND  USE  OF  LIBRARIES 
those  things  that  books  can  alone  fill  it  with, 
then  the  seven  devils  of  pettiness,  frivolity, 
fashionableness,  gentility,  scandal,  small  slan- 
der, and  the  chronicling  of  small  beer  come  in 
and  take  possession.  Half  this  nonsense  would 
be  dropped  if  men  would  only  understand  the 
elevating  influences  of  their  communing  con- 
stantly with  the  lofty  thoughts  and  high  re- 
solves of  men  of  old  times." 

The  author  of  "  Dreamthorp,"  filled  with 
love  and  enthusiasm,  discourses  thus:  "I  go 
into  my  library,  and  all  history  unrolls  before 
me.  I  breathe  the  morning  air  of  the  world 
while  the  scent  of  Eden's  roses  yet  lingers  in 
it,  while  it  vibrates  only  to  the  world's  first 
brood  of  nightingales  and  to  the  laugh  of  Eve. 
I  see  the  pyramids  building;  I  hear  the  shout- 
ings of  the  armies  of  Alexander;  I  feel  the 
ground  shake  beneath  the  march  of  Cambyses. 
I  sit  as  in  a  theatre, — the  stage  is  time;  the 
play  is  the  play  of  the  world.  What  a  spectacle 
it  is!  What  kingly  pomp,  what  processions  file 
past,  what  cities  burn  to  heaven,  what  crowds 
[87] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

of  captives  are  dragged  at  the  chariot  wheels 
of  conquerors!  I  hiss,  or  cry  ( Bravo/  when  the 
great  actors  come  on,  shaking  the  stage.  I  am 
a  Roman  emperor  when  I  look  at  a  Roman 
coin.  I  lift  Homer,  and  I  shout  with  Achilles 
in  the  trenches.  The  silence  of  the  unpeopled 
Assyrian  plains,  the  out-comings  and  in-goings 
of  the  patriarchs,  —  Abraham  and  Ishmael,  Isaac 
in  the  fields  at  eventide,  Rebekah  at  the  well, 
Jacob's  guile,  Esau's  face  reddened  by  desert 
sun-heat,  Joseph's  splendid  funeral  procession, 
— all  these  things  I  find  within  the  boards  of 
my  Old  Testament.  What  a  silence  in  those 
old  books  as  of  a  half-peopled  world, — what 
bleating  of  flocks,  what  green  pastoral  rest, 
what  indubitable  human  existence!  Across 
brawling  centuries  of  blood  and  war,  I  hear 
the  bleating  of  Abraham's  flocks,  the  tin- 
kling of  the  bells  of  Rebekah's  camels.  O  men 
and  women,  so  far  separated  yet  so  near,  so 
strange  yet  so  well-known,  by  what  miraculous 
power  do  I  know  you  all  ?  Books  are  the  true 
Elysian  fields,  where  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
[88] 


THE  VALUE  AND  USE  OF  LIBRARIES 
converse;  and  into  these  fields  a  mortal  may 
venture  unappalled.  What  king's  court  can 
boast  such  company?  What  school  of  philoso- 
phy, such  wisdom?  The  wit  of  the  ancient 
world  is  glancing  and  flashing  there.  There 
is  Pan's  pipe,  there  are  the  songs  of  Apollo. 
Seated  in  my  library  at  night,  and  looking  on 
the  silent  faces  of  my  books,  I  am  occasionally 
visited  by  a  strange  sense  of  the  supernatural. 
They  are  not  collections  of  printed  pages,  they 
are  ghosts.  I  take  one  down,  and  it  speaks 
with  me  in  a  tongue  not  now  heard  on  earth, 
and  of  men  and  things  of  which  it  alone  pos- 
sesses knowledge.  I  call  myself  a  solitary,  but 
sometimes  I  think  I  misapply  the  term.  No 
man  sees  more  company  than  I  do.  I  travel 
with  mightier  cohorts  around  me  than  did 
ever  Timour  or  Genghis  Khan  on  their  fiery 
marches.  I  am  a  sovereign  in  my  library;  but 
it  is  the  dead,  not  the  living,  that  attend  my 
levees." 

And  here  is  a  singularly  beautiful  passage 
which  I  commend  to  you  from  Gilbert  de  la 
[89] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
Porree,  who  was  archbishop  of  Poitiers  away 
back  in  the  twelfth  century. 

"I  sit  here  with  no  company  but  books,  dip- 
ping into  dainty  honeycombs  of  literature.  All 
minds  in  the  world's  history  find  their  focus  in 
a  library.  This  is  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple 
from  which  we  may  see  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  and  the  glory  of  them.  I  keep  Egypt 
and  the  Holy  Land  in  the  closet  next  the 
window.  On  the  side  of  them  is  Athens  and 
the  Empire  of  Rome.  Never  was  such  an  army 
mustered  as  I  have  here.  No  general  ever  had 
such  soldiers  as  I  have.  No  kingdom  ever  had 
half  such  illustrious  subjects  as  mine,  or  half  as 
well  governed.  I  can  put  my  haughtiest  sub- 
jects up  or  down,  as  it  pleases  me. 

"I  call  'Plato/  and  he  answers  'Here' — a 
noble  and  sturdy  soldier.  ' Aristotle/  'Here* — 
a  host  in  himself.  '  Demosthenes/  '  Cicero/ 
'Caesar/  'Tacitus/  'Pliny'— 'Here!'  they  an- 
swer, and  they  smile  at  me  in  their  immor- 
tality of  youth.  Modest  all,  they  never  speak 
unless  spoken  to0  Bountiful  all,  they  never 
[90] 


THE  VALUE  AND  USE  OF  LIBRARIES 
refuse  to  answer.  And  they  are  all  at  peace 
together. 

"My  architects  are  building  night  and  day 
without  sound  of  hammer;  my  painters  design- 
ing, my  poets  singing,  my  philosophers  discours- 
ing, my  historians  and  theologians  weaving 
their  tapestries,  my  generals  marching  about 
without  noise  or  blood.  I  hold  all  Egypt  in  fee 
simple.  I  build  not  a  city,  but  empires  at  a 
word.  I  can  say  as  much  of  all  the  Orient  as  he 
who  was  sent  to  grass  did  of  Babylon. 

"All  the  world  is  around  me,  all  that  ever 
stirred  human  hearts  or  fired  the  imagination 
is  harmlessly  here.  My  library  shelves  are  the 
avenues  of  time.  Ages  have  wrought,  genera- 
tions grown,  and  all  their  blossoms  are  cast 
down  here.  It  is  the  garden  of  immortal  fruits, 
without  dog  or  dragon." 


[91] 


BOOKS   OF   POWER 


Books  of  this  kind  have  been  written  in  all  ages  by 
their  greatest  men;  —  by  great  leaders,  great  states- 
men, and  great  thinkers.  These  are  all  at  your  choice ; 

and  life  is  short. 

John  Ruskin 


CHAPTER  IV 
BOOKS    OF   POWER 

THE  first  thing  naturally,  when  one  enters 
a  scholar's  study  or  library,"  says  Dr. 
Holmes,  "is  to  look  at  his  books.  One  gets  a 
notion  very  speedily  of  his  tastes  and  the  range 
of  his  pursuits  by  a  glance  round  his  book- 
shelves." 

What  sort  of  notion  would  you  form  of  that 
person  whose  library  includes  a  respectable 
part  of  all  those  truly  great  and  time-abiding 
books  which  I  have  elsewhere  alluded  to  as 
books  of  power?  These  are  the  works  which 
embody  the  best  thoughts  of  the  noblest 
thinkers  of  all  countries  and  ages ;  in  them  we 
perceive  the  crystallization  of  human  wisdom 
as  it  has  been  made  manifest  through  the 
grandest  intellects  of  all  nations ;  by  the  read- 
ing of  them  our  minds  are  lifted  into  closer 
companionship  with  the  invisible,  the  sublime, 
the  everlasting.  Such  books  are  for  the  build- 
[95] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

ing  up  of  a  lofty  character,  for  the  turning  of 
the  soul  inward  upon  itself  and  the  fitting  of 
it  for  greater,  stronger,  worthier  achievements. 

Shall  I  name  some  of  these  immortal  works? 
And  while  I  am  naming  them,  think  of  what 
is  contained  in  a  library  of  such  books — the 
accumulated  wisdom  of  all  the  centuries. 

For  convenience  of  reference  I  designate 
them  in  alphabetical  order  and  in  most  cases 
under  the  names  of  their  authors. 

Addison:  The  Spectator.  "The  talk  of  Addison  and 
Steele  is  the  brightest  and  easiest  talk  that  was  ever 
put  in  print." — john  richard  greek. 

,5£schylus:  Tragedies.  Prometheus  Bound  has  been 
rendered  into  English  verse  by  Elizabeth  Barrett 
Browning,  Agamemnon  has  been  translated  by 
Dean  Milman,  and  the  entire  seven  tragedies  by 
Dean  Potter.  "The  Prometheus  is  a  poem  of  the 
like  dignity  and  scope  as  the  Book  of  Job,  or  tne 
Norse  Edda. " — emerson. 

jEsop:  Fables.  The  best  English  edition  is  probably 
that  of  Joseph  Jacobs.  "The  oldest  representative 
that  we  have  of  the  literary  art  of  primitive  man." 

—  H.  T.  PECK. 

Arabian  Nights.  For  most  readers  Lane's  translation 
is  to  be  preferred.  "A  treasury  of  Oriental  fancy 
which  has  an  equal  charm  for  credulous  youth  and 
sceptical  manhood." — w.  davenport  adams. 
[96] 


BOOKS   OF   POWER 

Ariosto:  Orlando  Furioso.  The  standard  translation 
is  that  of  W.  S.  Rose  in  Bonn's  Illustrated  Li- 
brary. "As  a  great  single  poem,  it  has  been  very 
rarely  surpassed  in  the  living  records  of  poetry." — 

HALLAM. 

Aristophanes:  Comedies.  The  translation  by  John 
Hookham  Frere  is  admirable.  "We  might  apply  to 
the  pieces  of  Aristophanes  the  motto  of  a  pleasant 
and  acute  adventurer  in  Goethe  :  '  Mad,  but  clever.'" 

—  A.   W.   SCHLEGEL. 

Aristotle:  Selections.  Translated  by  Jowett.  "The 

master  of  those  who  know."  — dante. 
Bacon's  Essays.    "He   seemed  to  me  ever,  by  his 

work,  one  of  the  greatest  men,  and  most  worthy 

of  admiration,  that  had  been  in  many  ages."  —  ben 

jonson. 

Bible,  The.  For  a  book  lover's  library,  Professor 
Moulton's  Modern  Reader's  Bible  is  unsurpassed. 
"That  vast  Oriental  beaker  brimming  with  poetry." 

— VICTOR  HUGO. 

Bos  well's  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson.  "Scarcely  since 
the  days  of  Homer  has  the  feat  been  equalled ;  in- 
deed, in  many  senses,  this  also  is  a  kind  of  heroic 
poem. "  —  CARLYLE. 
'  Browne,  Sir  Thomas:  Religio  Medici.  "One  of  the 
most  beautiful  prose  poems  in  the  language."  — 

LORD  LYTTON. 

Bun  van:  Pilgrim's  Progress.  "A  book  that  breathes 
with  every  beautiful  and  valuable  emotion."  —  r.  l. 

STEVENSON. 

Burke's  Orations  and  Political  Essays.  "In  amplitude 
[97] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

of  comprehension  and  richness  of  imagination, 
Burke  was  superior  to  every  orator,  ancient  or 
modern." — lord  macaulay. 

Burns's  Poems.  "While  the  human  heart  beats,  the 
name  of  Robert  Burns  will  be  music  in  human 
ears." — george  william  curtis. 

Burton,  Robert:  The  Anatomy  of  Melancholy. 
Byron  says  that  "if  the  reader  has  patience  to  go 
through  the  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  he  will  be 
more  improved  for  literary  conversation  than  by 
the  perusal  of  any  twenty  other  works  with  which 
I  am  acquainted." 

Carlyle's  Essays.  "No  man  of  his  generation  has 
done  so  much  to  stimulate  thought." — Alfred  h. 

GUERNSEY. 

Cervantes:  Don  Quixote  de  la  Mancha.  "The  work 
of  Cervantes  is  the  greatest  in  the  world  after 
Homer's  Iliad,  speaking  of  it,  I  mean,  as  a  work  of 
entertainment."  — dr.  johnson. 

Chaucer.  If  not  the  complete  works,  at  least  the 
Canterbury  Tales.  "It  is  sufficient  to  say,  accord- 
ing to  the  proverb,  that  here  is  God's  plenty.''1  — 

DRYDEN. 

Cicero:  Orations,  Offices,  Old  Age,  Friendship.  Long's 
translation  of  the  Orations  is  the  best.  "Rome's 
most  eloquent  master  of  the  art  of  using  words."  — 

FROUDE. 

Coleridge:  The  Ancient  Mariner,  Christabel,  and 
Genevieve.  "These  might  be  bound  up  in  a  volume 
of  twenty  pages,  but  they  should  be  bound  in  pure 

gold." — STOPFORD  BROOKE. 

[98] 


BOOKS   OF   POWER 

Dante's  Divina  Commedia.  Translated  by  Long- 
fellow. "For  men  of  sane  intellect  he  is,  in  very- 
deed,  the  man  who  attained  the  sublimest  heights 
of  regenerated  art. "  —  d'ancona. 

Defoe:  Robinson  Crusoe.  "Contains  (not  for  boys, 
but  for  men)  more  religion,  more  philosophy,  more 
psychology,  more  political  economy,  more  anthro- 
pology, than  are  found  in  many  elaborate  treatises 
on  these  special  subjects."  —  frederic  Harrison. 

Demosthenes  :  Orations.  A  good  translation  is  that  of 
Kennedy  in  Bonn's  Classical  Library.  "The  orator 
in  whom  artistic  genius  was  united,  more  perfectly 
than  in  any  other  man,  with  moral  enthusiasm." — 

R.  C.  JERR. 

Dickens's  Novels.  If  not  all,  at  least  the  following: 
David  Copperfield,  Dombey  and  Son,  Nicholas 
Nickleby,  Old  Curiosity  Shop,  A  Tale  of  Two 
Cities,  and  Pickwick  Papers.  "The  most  benefi- 
cent good  genie  that  ever  wielded  a  pen."  —  rohert 

HUCHANAN. 

Dryden's  Poems.  "Dryden  is  even  better  than 
Pope.  He  has  immense  masculine  energies." — r. 

CHAM  HERS. 

George  Eliot's  Novels.  Adam  Bede,  The  Mill  on  the 
Floss,  Romola,  Middlemarch,  Daniel  Deronda. 
"The  greatest  representative  of  the  analytical  and 
psychological  school."  —  charles  waldstein. 

Emerson's  Essays.  "A  diction  at  once  so  rich  and 
so  homely  as  his,  I  know  not  where  to  match  in 
these  days  of  writing  by  the  page ;  it  is  like  home- 
spun Cloth-of-gold."  —  J.  R.  LOWELL. 

[99] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Epictetus:  Discourses.  Long's  edition.  "It  is  impos- 
sible for  any  person  of  sound  mind  not  to  be 
charmed  by  his  works." — niebuhr. 

Euripides  :  Tragedies.  Prose  translation  by  Coleridge, 
in  the  Bohn  Classical  Library,  or  A.  S.  Way's  met- 
rical translation.  "A  poet  whom  Socrates  called  his 
friend,  whom  Aristotle  lauded,  whom  Alexander 
admired. "  —  goethe. 

Fielding's  Tom  Jones.  "We  read  his  books  as  we 
drink  a  pure,  wholesome,  and  rough  wine,  which 
cheers  and  fortifies  us,  and  which  wants  nothing 
but  bouquet." — h.  a.  taine. 

Froissart's  Chronicles.  The  most  popular  transla- 
tion is  that  by  Thomas  Johnes,  1802.  "No  historian 
has  drawn  so  many  and  such  faithful  portraits." — 

WALTER  BESANT. 

Gibbon:  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
"His  conception  of  the  whole  subject  was  as  poeti- 
cal as  a  great  picture." — stopford  brooke. 

Goethe's  Faust.  Translated  by  Bayard  Taylor. 
"What  constitutes  Goethe's  glory  is,  that  in  the 
nineteenth  century  he  did  produce  an  epic  poem — 
I  mean  a  poem  in  which  genuine  gods  act  and 
speak." — H.  A.  TAINE. 

Goldsmith:  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield.  "The  blot- 
ting out  of  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  from  most 
minds,  would  be  more  grievous  than  to  know  that 
the  island  of  Borneo  had  sunk  in  the  sea." — r. 

CHAMBERS. 

Hawthorne's  Novels.  The  Scarlet  Letter,  The  Marble 
[100] 


BOOKS   OF   POWER. 

Faun,  The  Blithedale  Romance,  The  House  of  the 
Seven  Gables.  "Of  all  cynics  he  was  the  bright- 
est and  kindest,  and  the  subtleties  he  spun  are 
mere  silken  threads  for  stringing  polished  beads." 

—  HENRY  JAMES. 

Herodotus.  Rawlinson's  translation  with  notes  and 
special  essays  is  to  be  preferred.  "The  most  Ho- 
meric of  historians." — longinus. 

Holmes:  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table. 
"Something  more  than  an  essayist;  he  is  con- 
templative, discursive,  poetical,  thoughtful,  philo- 
sophical, amusing,  imaginative,  tender — never  di- 
dactic. "  —  MACKENZIE. 

Homer's  Iliad  and  Odyssey.  The  most  notable  poetical 
translations  are  George  Chapman's  (1611),  Pope's 
(1715),  Tickell's  (1715),  Cowper's  (1781),  Lord 
Derby's  (1867),  Bryant's  (1870).  The  greatest  schol- 
ars award  the  palm  of  merit  to  Chapman.  Says 
Lowell:  "Chapman  has  made  for  us  the  best  poem 
that  has  yet  been  Englished  out  of  Homer."  The 
best  prose  translation  of  the  Iliad  is  that  by  Lang, 
Leaf,  and  Myers ;  the  best  of  the  Odyssey  is  that 
by  Butcher  and  Lang. 

Horace's  Odes,  Epodes,  and  Satires.  There  are  ex- 
cellent translations  by  Conington,  Lord  Lytton,  and 
T.  Martin.  "There  is  Horace,  charming  man  of  the 
world,  who  will  condole  with  you  feelingly  on  the 
loss  of  your  fortune,  .  .  .  but  who  will  yet  show  you 
that  a  man  may  be  happy  with  a  vile  modicum  or 
parva  rura." — lord  lytton. 

Hugo:  Les  Miserables.  "Full  of  pathos,  full  of  truth, 
[101] 


3ME  BOOK   LOVER 

full  of  a  high  eloquence.  Take  it  for  all  in  all,  there 
are  few  books  in  the  world  that  can  be  compared 
with  it." STEVENSON. 

Kalevala,  The.  Of  this  national  epic  of  Finland  there 
is  a  good  American  translation  by  John  Martin 
Crawford.  "It  possesses  merits  not  dissimilar  to 
those  of  the  Iliad."  —  max  muller. 

Keats's  Poems.  "No  one  else  in  English  poetry,  save 
Shakespeare,  has  in  expression  quite  the  fascinating 
felicity  of  Keats,  his  perfection  of  loveliness."  — 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 

Lamb:  The  Essays  of  Elia.  "People  never  weary  of 
reading  Charles  Lamb." — Alexander  smith. 

Longfellow's  Poems.  "In  the  pure,  amiable,  home- 
like qualities  that  reach  the  heart  and  captivate 
the  ear,  no  one  places  Longfellow  second." — the 
critic. 

Lowell's  Works.  "In  poetry,  in  satire,  in  prose,  and 
on  his  lips,  his  voice  was  from  beginning  to  end  the 
manliest,  the  most  ringing  to  be  heard." — henry 

JAMES. 

Macaulay's  Essays.  "I  confess  to  a  fondness  for 
books  of  this  kind."  —  h.  a.  taine. 

Mahabharata,  The.  The  great  epic  of  ancient  India. 
"A  noble  work  abounding  in  passages  of  remark- 
able descriptive  power,  intense  pathos,  and  high 
poetic  grace  and  beauty." — julius  eggeling. 

Malory's  Morte  d' Arthur.  "The  first  and  finest 
romance  of  chivalry  in  our  common  tongue." — 

ERNEST  RHYS. 

Marcus  Aurelius:  Meditations.  Long's  translation. 
[102] 


BOOKS   OF   POWER 

"The  special  friend  and  comforter  of  all  clear- 
headed and  scrupulous,  yet  pure  and  upward-striving 

SOUIS." — MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 

Marlowe:  Tamburlaine,  Doctor  Faustus,  and  The 
Jew  of  Malta.  "He  had  in  him  all  those  brave 
translunary  things  which  the  first  poets  did  have." 

— DRAYTON. 

Milton's  Poetical  Works.  "Milton  almost  requires  a 
solemn  service  of  music  to  be  played  before  you 
enter  upon  him."  —  charles  lamb. 

Moliere's  Dramas.  Translation  by  H.  Van  Laun. 
"  In  the  literature  of  the  modern  drama  the  greatest 
name  after  that  of  Shakespeare." — a.  lang. 

Montaigne's  Essays.  "Montaigne  comes  in  for  a 
large  share  of  the  scholar's  regard;  opened  any- 
where, his  page  is  sensible,  marrowy,  quotable." — 

A.  BRONSON  ALCOTT. 

Nibelungenlied,  The.  Lettsom's  is  the  best  poetic 
translation.  "It  is  classic  like  Homer,  for  both  are 
healthy  and  strong." — goethe. 

Omar  Khayyam's  Rubaiyat,  by  Fitzgerald.  There 
are  many  other  English  versions.  "His  good-humor 
and  good  cheer,  his  wit  and  bonhomie,  all  make 
him  appeal  to  a  wide  circle  of  nineteenth-century 
readers." — n.  h.  dole. 

Plato's  Dialogues.  Jowett's  translation.  "All  philo- 
sophic truth  is  Plato  rightly  divined." — ferrier. 

Plutarch:  Lives  of  Illustrious  Greeks  and  Romans. 
Arthur  Hugh  Clough's  revision  of  Dryden's  Plu- 
tarch. "Without  Plutarch,  no  library  were  com- 
plete."— A.  BRONSON  ALCOTT. 

[103] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Poe's  Poems.  "  His  poetry  is  sheer  poetry  and  borrows 
nothing  from  without." — james  hannay. 

Pope's  Poetical  Works.  "Come  we  now  to  Pope,  that 
prince  of  sayers  of  acute  and  exquisite  things." — 

ROBERT  CHAMBERS. 

Ramayava,  The.  The  second  great  epic  of  India. 
"There  are  few  poems  in  the  world's  literature  more 
charming. "  —  monter-williams. 

Saadi's  Gulistan.  Translation  by  Edwin  Arnold.  "He 
has  the  instinct  to  teach,  and  from  every  oc- 
currence must  draw  the  moral.  He  inspires  in  the 
reader  a  good  hope." — emerson. 

Scott:  The  Waverley  Novels.  "All  is  great  in  the 
Waverley  novels,  material,  effect,  characters,  exe- 
cution." — GOETHE. 

Shakespeare's  Works.  The  following  editions  of  Shake- 
speare have  been  issued  within  the  past  hundred 
years:  The  first  Variorum  (1813);  The  Variorum 
(1821);  Singer's  (10  vols.  1826);  Knight's  (8  vols. 
1841);  Collier's  (8  vols.  1844);  Verplanck's  (3  vols. 
1847);  Hudson's  (11  vols.  1857);  Dyce's  (6  vols. 
1867);  Mary  Cowden  Clarke's  (2  vols.  1860);  R.  G. 
White's  (12  vols.  1862);  Clark  and  Wright's  (9  vols. 
1866);  The  Leopold  Edition  (1  vol.  1877);  The  Har- 
vard Edition  (20  vols.  1881);  Rolfe's  (for  schools, 
1877-1881);  Furness's  Variorum(1871-1901).  "Above 
all  poets,  the  mysterious  dual  of  hard  sense  and 
empyrean  fancy." — lord  lytton. 

Shelley's  Poems.  "The  very  soul  rushes  out  towards 
Shelley  as  an  unapproached  poet,  and  embraces 
him  as  a  dearest  friend." — leioh  hunt. 
[104] 


BOOKS   OF   POWER 

Sophocles  :  Tragedies.  Translation  by  Plumptre.  "His 
wisdom  is  the  common  heritage  of  human  nature." 

—  J.  A.  SYMONDS. 

Spenser's  Faerie  Queene,  not  to  be  read  through, 
but  in  selections.  "We  can  scarcely  comprehend 
how  a  perusal  of  the  Faerie  Queene  can  fail  to 
insure  to  the  true  believer  a  succession  of  halcyon 
days. " — HAZLXTT. 

Tasso  :  Jerusalem  Delivered.  Translation  by  Fairfax. 
"No  poem,  if  we  except  the  iEneid,  has  so  few 
weak  or  tedious  pages." — hallam. 

Tennyson's  Poems.  "Tennyson  is  a  born  poet,  that 
is,  a  builder  of  airy  palaces  and  imaginary  castles ; 
he  has  chosen  amongst  all  forms  the  most  elegant, 
ornate,  exquisite." — taine. 

Thackeray's  Novels,  especially  Vanity  Fair,  Henry 
Esmond,  The  Newcomes,  and  Pendennis.  "The 
first  social  regeneration  of  the  day."— charlotte 
bronte. 

Theocritus:  Idyls.  Andrew  Lang's  translation.  "A 
casket  of  finely  wrought  jewels,  one  might  say, 
or  of  spices  remarkable  for  their  rarity  and  rich- 
ness."—  J.  W.  MACKAIL. 

Virgil's  iEneid.  Either  Conington's  or  Morris's  trans- 
lation. "Virgil  is  far  below  Homer;  yet  Virgil  has 
genius  enough  to  be  two  men." — lord  lytton. 

Walton,  Izaak:  The  Complete  Angler.  "Holds  spicy 
place  among  ranks  of  books,  as  lavender  keeps 
fresh  odor  among  stores  of  linen." — d.  g.  mitchell. 

Webster's  Best  Speeches.  "But  after  all  is  said,  we 

[  105] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

come  back  to  the  simple  statement  that  he  was  a 
very  great  man ;  intellectually,  one  of  the  greatest 
men  of  his  age." — henry  cabot  lodge. 
Wordsworth's  Poems.  "He  has  invested  our  ordinary 
everyday  principles  of  conduct  with  imperishable 
robes  of  finest  texture  and  richest  design." — w. 

MINTO. 

This  list  might  be  readily  extended;  but  I 
forbear.  The  books  that  I  have  named  are  not 
"books  of  the  year";  they  are  books  of  the 
ages — words  of  eternal  truth  and  beauty,  in- 
structing, uplifting,  and  delighting  generation 
after  generation  of  mankind.  When  such  riches 
are  within  your  reach,  why  will  you  give  your 
thoughts  to  those  unworthy  performances  that 
endure  but  a  day? 

I  close  this  chapter  with  Leigh  Hunt's  pleas- 
ant word  picture  descriptive  of  his  own  library : 
"Sitting  last  winter  among  my  books,  and 
walled  round  with  all  the  comfort  and  protec- 
tion which  they  and  my  fireside  could  afford 
me, — to  wit,  a  table  of  high-piled  books  at  my 
back,  my  writing-desk  on  one  side  of  me,  some 
shelves  on  the  other,  and  the  feeling  of  the 
warm  fire  at  my  feet,  —  I  began  to  consider 
[106] 


BOOKS  OF  POWER 
how  I  loved  the  authors  of  those  books;  how  I 
loved  them  too,  not  only  for  the  imaginative 
pleasures  they  afforded  me,  but  for  their  mak- 
ing me  love  the  very  books  themselves,  and 
delight  to  be  in  contact  with  them.  I  looked 
sideways  at  my  Spenser,  my  Theocritus,  and 
my  Arabian  Nights;  then  above  them  at  my 
Italian  Poets;  then  behind  me  at  my  Dryden 
and  Pope,  my  Romances,  and  my  Boccaccio; 
then  on  my  left  side  at  my  Chaucer,  who  lay 
on  my  writing-desk;  and  thought  how  natural 
it  was  in  Charles  Lamb  to  give  a  kiss  to  an 
old  folio,  as  I  once  saw  him  do  to  Chapman's 
Homer.  ...  I  entrench  myself  in  my  books, 
equally  against  sorrow  and  the  weather.  If  the 
wind  comes  through  a  passage,  I  look  about  to 
see  how  I  can  fence  it  off  by  a  better  disposi- 
tion of  my  movables;  if  a  melancholy  thought 
is  importunate,  I  give  another  glance  at  my 
Spenser.  When  I  speak  of  being  in  contact 
with  my  books,  I  mean  it  literally.  I  like  to  be 
able  to  lean  my  head  against  them.  .  .  .  The 
very  perusal  of  the  backs  is  a  '  discipline  of  hu- 
[W] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
manity.'  There  Mr.  Sou  they  takes  his  place 
again  with  an  old  Radical  friend ;  there  Jeremy 
Collier  is  at  peace  with  Dryden ;  there  the  lion, 
Martin  Luther,  lies  down  with  the  Quaker 
lamb,  Sewell;  there  Guzman  d'Alfarache  thinks 
himself  fit  company  for  Sir  Charles  Grandison, 
and  has  his  claims  admitted.  .  .  .  Nothing,  while 
I  live  and  think,  can  deprive  me  of  my  value 
for  such  treasures.  I  can  help  the  appreciation 
of  them  while  I  last,  and  love  them  till  I  die; 
and  perhaps  I  may  chance,  some  quiet  day,  to 
lay  my  over-beating  temples  on  a  book,  and  so 
have  the  death  I  most  envy." 


[108] 


WHAT   BOOKS 
SHALL   CHILDREN    READ? 


Give  a  boy  a  passion  for  books,  and  you  give  him 
thereby  a  lever  to  lift  his  world,  and  a  patent  of  no- 
bility, if  the  thing  he  does  is  noble. 

Robert  Collyer 


CHAPTER   V 

WHAT  BOOKS  SHALL  CHILDREN  READ? 

THE  greatest  problem  presented  to  the 
consideration  of  parents  and  teachers 
nowadays  is  how  properly  to  regulate  and 
direct  the  reading  of  the  children.  There  is  no 
scarcity  of  reading  matter.  The  poorest  child 
may  have  free  access  to  books  and  papers, 
more  than  he  can  read.  The  publication  of  pe- 
riodicals and  cheap  books  especially  designed 
to  meet  the  tastes  of  young  people  has  devel- 
oped into  an  enterprise  of  vast  proportions. 
Every  day,  millions  of  pages  of  reading  matter 
designed  for  children  are  printed  and  scattered 
broadcast  over  the  land.  But  unlimited  op- 
portunities often  prove  to  be  a  damage  and 
a  detriment;  and  over-abundance,  rather  than 
scarcity,  is  to  be  deplored.  As  a  general  rule, 
the  books  read  by  young  people  are  not  such 
as  lead  to  studious  habits,  or  induce  correct 
ideas  of  right  living.  They  are  intended  simply 

[in] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
to  amuse ;  there  are  no  elements  of  strength  in 
them,  leading  up  to  a  noble  manhood.  I  doubt 
if  in  the  future  it  can  be  said  of  any  great 
statesman  or  scholar  that  his  tastes  have  been 
formed,  and  his  energies  directed  and  sus- 
tained, through  the  influence  of  his  early  read- 
ing; but  rather  that  he  has  attained  success, 
and  whatever  of  true  nobility  there  is  in  him, 
in  spite  of  such  influence. 

This  was  not  always  so.  The  experience  of  a 
few  well-known  scholars  will  illustrate.  "From 
my  infancy,"  says  Benjamin  Franklin,  "I  was 
passionately  fond  of  reading,  and  all  the  money 
that  came  into  my  hands  was  laid  out  in  the 
purchasing  of  books.  I  was  very  fond  of  voy- 
ages. My  first  acquisition  was  Bunyan's  works 
in  separate  little  volumes.  I  afterwards  sold 
them  to  enable  me  to  buy  R.  Burton's  Histori- 
cal Collections.  They  were  small  chapmen's 
books,  and  cheap;  forty  volumes  in  all.  My 
father's  little  library  consisted  chiefly  of  books 
in  polemic  divinity,  most  of  which  I  read.  I 
have  often  regretted  that  at  a  time  when  I 
[112] 


BOOKS    FOR   CHILDREN   TO    READ 

had  such  a  thirst  for  knowledge  more  proper 
books  had  not  fallen  in  my  way,  since  it  was 
resolved  I  should  not  be  bred  to  divinity. 
There  was  among  them  Plutarch's  Lives,  which 
I  read  abundantly,  and  I  still  think  the  time 
spent  to  great  advantage.  There  was  also  a 
book  of  Defoe's  called  'An  Essay  on  Projects/ 
and  another  of  Dr.  Mather's,  called  'An 
Essay  to  Do  Good,'  which  perhaps  gave  me 
a  turn  of  thinking  that  had  an  influence  on 
some  of  the  principal  future  events  of  my  life. 
This  bookish  inclination  at  length  determined 
my  father  to  make  me  a  printer.  ...  I  stood 
out  some  time,  but  at  last  was  persuaded,  and 
signed  the  indenture  when  I  was  yet  but 
twelve  years  old.  ...  I  now  had  access  to  bet- 
ter books.  An  acquaintance  with  the  appren- 
tices of  booksellers  enabled  me  sometimes  to 
borrow  a  small  one,  which  I  was  careful  to 
return  soon,  and  clean.  Often  I  sat  up  in  my 
chamber  the  greatest  part  of  the  night,  when 
the  book  was  borrowed  in  the  evening  and  to 
be  returned  in  the  morning,  lest  it  should  be 
[113] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
found  missing.  .  .  .  About  this  time  I  met  with 
an  odd  volume  of  the  ( Spectator.'  I  had  never 
before  seen  any  of  them.  I  bought  it,  read  it 
over  and  over,  and  was  much  delighted  with 
it.  I  thought  the  writing  excellent,  and  wished 
if  possible  to  imitate  it.  With  that  view  I  took 
some  of  the  papers,  and,  making  short  hints 
of  the  sentiments  in  each  sentence,  laid  them 
by  a  few  days,  and  then,  without  looking  at 
the  book,  tried  to  complete  the  papers  again, 
by  expressing  each  hinted  sentiment  at  length, 
and  as  fully  as  it  had  been  expressed  before, 
in  any  suitable  words  that  should  occur  to  me. 
Then  I  compared  my  f Spectator'  with  the 
original,  discovered  some  of  my  faults,  and 
corrected  them.  .  .  . 

"Now  it  was,  that,  being  on  some  occasions 
made  ashamed  of  my  ignorance  in  figures, 
which  I  had  twice  failed  learning  when  at 
school,  I  took  Cocker's  book  on  Arithmetic, 
and  went  through  the  whole  by  myself  with 
the  greatest  ease.  I  also  read  Seller's  and 
Sturny's  book  on  Navigation,  which  made  me 
[114] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
acquainted  with  the  little  geometry  it  con- 
tains; but  I  never  proceeded  far  in  that  sci- 
ence. I  read  about  this  time  \  Locke  on  the 
Human  Understanding/  and  the  ( Art  of  Think- 
ing/ by  Messrs.  de  Port  Royal. 

"  While  I  was  intent  on  improving  my  lan- 
guage, I  met  with  an  English  Grammar  (I 
think  it  was  Greenwood's),  having  at  the  end 
of  it  two  little  sketches  on  the  'Arts  of 
Rhetoric  and  Logic/  the  latter  finishing  with 
a  dispute  in  the  Socratic  method.  And  soon 
after,  I  procured  Xenophon's  'Memorable 
Things  of  Socrates/  wherein  there  are  many 
examples  of  the  same  method.  I  was  charmed 
with  it,  adopted  it,  dropped  my  abrupt  con- 
tradiction and  positive  argumentation,  and  put 
on  the  humble  inquirer." 1 

Hugh  Miller,  that  most  admirable  Scotch- 
man and  self-made  man,  relates  a  similar 
experience:  "During  my  sixth  year  I  spelled 
my  way  through  the  Shorter  Catechism,  the 
Proverbs,  and  the  New  Testament,  and  then 

1  Franklin' 8  Autobiography,  edited  by  Sparks. 
[115] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
entered  upon  the  highest  form  in  the  dame's 
school  as  a  member  of  the  Bible  class.  But  all 
the  while  the  process  of  learning  had  been  a 
dark  one,  which  I  slowly  mastered,  in  humble 
confidence  in  the  awful  wisdom  of  the  school- 
mistress, not  knowing  whither  it  tended ;  when 
at  once  my  mind  awoke  to  the  meaning  of  the 
most  delightful  of  all  narratives, — the  story  of 
Joseph.  Was  there  ever  such  a  discovery  made 
before!  I  actually  found  out  for  myself  that 
the  art  of  reading  is  the  art  of  finding  stories 
in  books;  and  from  that  moment  reading  be- 
came one  of  the  most  delightful  of  my  amuse- 
ments. I  began  by  getting  into  a  corner  on 
the  dismissal  of  the  school,  and  there  conning 
over  to  myself  the  new-found  story  of  Joseph ; 
nor  did  one  perusal  serve; — the  other  Scrip- 
ture stories  followed, — in  especial,  the  story 
of  Samson  and  the  Philistines,  of  David  and 
Goliath,  of  the  prophets  Elijah  and  Elisha; 
and  after  these  came  the  New  Testament 
stories  and  parables.  Assisted  by  my  uncles, 
too,  I  began  to  collect  a  library  in  a  box  of 
[116] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
birch  bark  about  nine  inches  square,  which  I 
found  quite  large  enough  to  contain  a  great 
many  immortal  works:  ' Jack  the  Giant-Killer/ 
and  '  Jack  and  the  Bean-Stalk/  and  the  '  Yel- 
low Dwarf/  and  'Blue  Beard/  and  'Sinbad  the 
Sailor/  and  '  Beauty  and  the  Beast/  and  l  Alad- 
din and  the  Wonderful  Lamp/  with  several 
others  of  resembling  character.  Those  intoler- 
able nuisances,  the  useful-knowledge  books,  had 
not  yet  arisen,  like  tenebrous  stars  on  the  edu- 
cational horizon,  to  darken  the  world,  and  shed 
their  blighting  influence  on  the  opening  in- 
tellect of  the  'youthhood';  and  so,  from  my 
rudimental  books — books  that  made  them- 
selves truly  such  by  their  thorough  assimila- 
tion with  the  rudimental  mind — I  passed  on, 
without  being  conscious  of  break  or  line  of 
division,  to  books  on  which  the  learned  are 
content  to  write  commentaries  and  disserta- 
tions, but  which  I  found  to  be  quite  as  nice 
children's  books  as  any  of  the  others.  Old 
Homer  wrote  admirably  for  little  folk,  espe- 
cially in  the  Odyssey;  a  copy  of  which,  in 
[117] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
the  only  true  translation  extant, — for,  judging 
from  its  surpassing  interest,  and  the  wrath  of 
critics,  such  I  hold  that  of  Pope  to  be, — I 
found  in  the  house  of  a  neighbor.  Next  came 
the  Iliad;  not,  however,  in  a  complete  copy, 
but  represented  by  four  of  the  six  volumes  of 
Bernard  Lintot.  With  what  power  and  at  how 
early  an  age  true  genius  impresses!  I  saw, 
even  at  this  immature  period,  that  no  other 
writer  could  cast  a  javelin  with  half  the  force 
of  Homer.  The  missiles  went  whizzing  athwart 
his  pages;  and  I  could  see  the  momentary 
gleam  of  the  steel,  ere  it  buried  itself  deep  in 
brass  and  bull-hide.  I  next  succeeded  in  dis- 
covering for  myself  a  child's  book,  of  not  less 
interest  than  even  the  Iliad,  which  might,  I 
was  told,  be  read  on  Sabbaths,  in  a  magnifi- 
cent old  edition  of  the  '  Pilgrim's  Progress,' 
printed  on  coarse  whity-brown  paper,  and 
charged  with  numerous  wood-cuts,  each  of 
which  occupied  an  entire  page,  which,  on 
principles  of  economy,  bore  letter-press  on 
the  other  side.  .  .  . 

[118] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
"In  process  of  time,  I  devoured,  besides 
these  genial  works,  ' Robinson  Crusoe/  '  Gulli- 
ver's Travels/  'Ambrose  on  Angels/  the  'judg- 
ment chapter'  in  'Howie's  Scotch  Worthies/ 
Byron's  'Narrative/  and  the  'Adventures  of 
Philip  Quarll/  with  a  good  many  other  adven- 
tures and  voyages,  real  and  fictitious,  part  of 
a  very  miscellaneous  collection  of  books  made 
by  my  father.  It  was  a  melancholy  library  to 
which  I  had  fallen  heir.  Most  of  the  missing 
volumes  had  been  with  the  master  aboard  his 
vessel  when  he  perished.  Of  an  early  edition 
of  Cook's  'Voyages/  all  the  volumes  were  now 
absent,  save  the  first;  and  a  very  tantalizing  ro- 
mance, in  four  volumes, — Mrs.  Radcliffe's  'Mys- 
teries of  Udolpho/  —  was  represented  by  only 
the  earlier  two.  Small  as  the  collection  was,  it 
contained  some  rare  books, — among  the  rest, 
a  curious  little  volume  entitled  'The  Miracles 
of  Nature  and  Art/  to  which  we  find  Dr. 
Johnson  referring,  in  one  of  the  dialogues 
chronicled  by  Boswell,  as  scarce  even  in  his 
day,  and  which  had  been  published,  he  said, 
[119] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
some  time  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  a 
bookseller  whose  shop  hung  perched  on  Old 
London  Bridge,  between  sky  and  water.  It 
contained,  too,  the  only  copy  I  ever  saw  of 
the  f Memoirs  of  a  Protestant  condemned  to 
the  Galleys  of  France  for  his  Religion/ — a 
work  interesting  from  the  circumstance  that, 
though  it  bore  another  name  on  its  title-page, 
it  had  been  translated  from  the  French  for 
a  few  guineas  by  poor  Goldsmith,  in  his  days 
of  obscure  literary  drudgery,  and  exhibited  the 
peculiar  excellences  of  his  style.  The  collection 
boasted,  besides,  of  a  curious  old  book,  illus- 
trated by  very  uncouth  plates,  that  detailed 
the  perils  and  sufferings  of  an  English  sailor 
who  had  spent  the  best  years  of  his  life  as  a 
slave  in  Morocco.  It  had  its  volumes  of  sound 
theology,  too,  and  of  stiff  controversy,  —  Flavel's 
Works,  and  Henry's  ' Commentary,'  and  Hutch- 
inson fOn  the  Lesser  Prophets,'  and  a  very  old 
treatise  on  the  f  Revelations,'  with  the  title-page 
away,  and  blind  Jameson's  volume  on  the 
Hierarchy,  with  first  editions  of '  Naphtali,' '  The 
[120] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
Cloud  of  Witnesses/  and  the  fHind  Let  Loose.' 
Of  the  works  of  fact  and  incident  which  it 
contained,  those  of  the  voyages  were  my  spe- 
cial favorites.  I  perused  with  avidity  the  Voy- 
ages of  Anson,  Drake,  Raleigh,  Dampier,  and 
Captain  Woods  Rogers;  and  my  mind  became 
so  filled  with  conceptions  of  what  was  to  be 
seen  and  done  in  foreign  parts,  that  I  wished 
myself  big  enough  to  be  a  sailor,  that  I  might 
go  and  see  coral  islands  and  burning  mountains, 
and  hunt  wild  beasts,  and  fight  battles."1 

William  and  Robert  Chambers,  the  founders 
of  the  great  publishing  house  of  W.  &  R.  Cham- 
bers, Edinburgh,  were  also  self-educated  men. 
"At  little  above  fourteen  years  of  age,"  writes 
William,  "I  was  thrown  on  my  own  resources. 
From  necessity,  not  less  than  from  choice,  I 
resolved  at  all  hazards  to  make  the  weekly  four 
shillings  serve  for  everything.  I  cannot  remem- 
ber entertaining  the  slightest  despondency  on 
the  subject.  ...  I  made  such  attempts  as 
were  at  all  practicable,  while  an  apprentice, 

1  My  Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 
[121] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
to  remedy  the  defects  of  my  education  at 
school.  Nothing  in  that  way  could  be  done  in 
the  shop,  for  there  reading  was  proscribed. 
But,  allowed  to  take  home  a  book  for  study,  I 
gladly  availed  myself  of  the  privilege.  The 
mornings  in  summer,  when  light  cost  nothing, 
were  my  chief  reliance.  Fatigued  with  trudg- 
ing about,  I  was  not  naturally  inclined  to  rise; 
but  on  this  and  some  other  points  I  overruled 
the  will,  and  forced  myself  to  rise  at  five 
o'clock,  and  have  a  spell  at  reading  until  it 
was  time  to  think  of  moving  off, — my  brother, 
when  he  was  with  me,  doing  the  same.  In  this 
way  I  made  some  progress  in  French,  with  the 
pronunciation  of  which  I  was  already  familiar 
from  the  speech  of  the  French  prisoners  of 
war  at  Peebles.  I  likewise  dipped  into  several 
books  of  solid  worth,  —  such  as  Smith's  'Wealth 
of  Nations,'  Locke's  '  Human  Understanding,' 
Paley's  ( Moral  Philosophy,'  and  Blair's  'Belles- 
Lettres,' — fixing  the  leading  facts  and  theories 
in  my  memory  by  a  notebook  for  the  purpose. 
In  another  book  I  kept  for  years  an  accurate 
[  122] 


BOOKS   FOR   CHILDREN   TO   READ 
account  of  my  expenses,  not  allowing  a  single 
halfpenny  to  escape  record." 

And  Robert,  the  younger  brother,  confirms 
the  story,  with  even  more  accurate  attention 
to  details.  "My  brother  William  and  I,"  he 
says,  "lived  in  lodgings  together.  Our  room 
and  bed  cost  three  shillings  a  week.  ...  I 
used  to  be  in  great  distress  for  want  of  fire.  I 
could  not  afford  either  that  or  a  candle  myself; 
so  I  have  often  sat  by  my  landlady's  kitchen 
fire, — if  fire  it  could  be  called,  which  was  only 
a  little  heap  of  embers, — reading  Horace  and 
conning  my  dictionary  by  a  light  which  re- 
quired me  to  hold  the  books  almost  close  to 
the  grate.  What  a  miserable  winter  that  was! 
Yet  I  cannot  help  feeling  proud  of  my  trials  at 
that  time.  My  brother  and  I — he  then  between 
fifteen  and  sixteen,  I  between  thirteen  and 
fourteen — had  made  a  resolution  together  that 
we  would  exercise  the  last  degree  of  self-de- 
nial. My  brother  actually  saved  money  out  of 
his  income.  I  remember  seeing  him  take  five- 
and-twenty  shillings  out  of  a  closed  box  which 
[123] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
he  kept  to  receive  his  savings;  and  that  was 
the  spare  money  of  only  a  twelvemonth."1 

Dr.  Robert  Collyer,  whose  name  is  known 
and  honored  by  every  American  scholar,  says: 
"Do  you  want  to  know  how  I  manage  to  talk 
to  you  in  this  simple  Saxon?  I  will  tell  you.  I 
read  Bunyan,  Crusoe,  and  Goldsmith  when  I 
was  a  boy,  morning,  noon,  and  night.  All  the 
rest  was  task  work;  these  were  my  delight, 
with  the  stories  in  the  Bible,  and  with  Shake- 
speare when  at  last  the  mighty  master  came 
within  our  doors.  ...  I  took  to  these  as  I 
took  to  milk,  and,  without  the  least  idea  what 
I  was  doing,  got  the  taste  for  simple  words 
into  the  very  fibre  of  my  nature.  There  was 
day-school  for  me  until  I  was  thirteen  years 
old,  and  then  I  had  to  turn  in  and  work  thir- 
teen hours  a  day.  ...  I  could  not  go  home 
for  the  Christmas  of  1839,  and  was  feeling 
very  sad  about  it  all,  for  I  was  only  a  boy; 
and,  sitting  by  the  fire,  an  old  farmer  came  in 

1  Memoir  of  Robert  Chambers:  with  Autobiographic 
Reminiscences  of  William  Chambers. 
[124] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
and  said,  'I  notice  thou's  fond  o'  reading,  so  I 
brought  thee  summat  to  read.'  It  was  Irving's 
'Sketch  Book.'  I  had  never  heard  of  the  work. 
I  went  at  it,  and  was  'as  them  that  dream.' 
No  such  delight  had  touched  me  since  the  old 
days  of  Crusoe.  I  saw  the  Hudson  and  the 
Catskills,  took  poor  Rip  at  once  into  my  heart, 
as  everybody  has,  pitied  Ichabod  while  I 
laughed  at  him,  thought  the  old  Dutch  feast 
a  most  admirable  thing;  and  long  before  I  was 
through,  all  regret  at  my  lost  Christmas  had 
gone  down  the  wind,  and  I  had  found  out 
there  are  books  and  books.  That  vast  hunger 
to  read  never  left  me.  If  there  was  no  candle, 
I  poked  my  head  down  to  the  fire ;  read  while 
I  was  eating,  blowing  the  bellows,  or  walking 
from  one  place  to  another.  I  could  read  and 
walk  four  miles  an  hour.  I  remember  while  I 
was  yet  a  lad  reading  Macaulay's  great  essay 
on  Bacon,  and  I  could  grasp  its  wonderful 
beauty." 

It   may   be   questioned   whether,   in    these 
days  of  opportunities,  it  would  be  possible  to 
[125] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

find  boys  of  thirteen  and  sixteen  who  would 
be  able  to  read  understandingly,  much  less  ap- 
preciate and  enjoy,  those  masterpieces  of  Eng- 
lish literature  so  eagerly  studied  by  Franklin 
and  Hugh  Miller  and  the  Chambers  brothers. 
Their  mental  appetites  have  been  treated  to  a 
different  kind  of  diet.  If  their  minds  have  not 
been  dwarfed  and  stunted  by  indulgence  in 
what  has  been  aptly  termed  "pen  poison/'  their 
tastes  have  been  perverted  and  the  growth  of 
their  reasoning  powers  checked  by  being  fed 
upon  the  milk-and-water  stuff  recommended 
as  harmless  literature.  They  are  inveterate  de- 
vourers  of  stories,  and  of  the  worthless  slops 
provided  in  cheap  libraries — even  Sunday- 
school  libraries — for  their  entertainment.  The 
influence  of  such  is  but  a  "discipline  of  debase- 
ment." Better  that  children  should  not  read 
at  all,  than  read  much  of  that  which  passes 
current  nowadays  for  entertaining  reading. 

All  children  like  to  read  stories.  The  love  of 
"the  story,"  in  some  form  or  other,  is  indeed 
a  characteristic  of  the  human  mind,  and  exists 
[  126  ] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
everywhere,  in  all  conditions  of  life.  But  stories 
are  the  sweets  of  our  mental  existence,  and 
only  a  few  of  the  best  and  greatest  have  in 
them  the  elements  which  will  lead  to  a  strong 
and  vigorous  mind-growth.  Constant  feeding 
upon  light  literature — however  good  that  lit- 
erature may  be  in  itself — will  debilitate  and 
corrupt  the  mental  appetite  of  the  child,  much 
the  same  as  an  unrestrained  indulgence  in  jam 
and  preserves  will  undermine  and  destroy  his 
physical  health.  In  either  case,  if  no  result 
more  serious  occurs,  the  worst  forms  of  dys- 
pepsia will  follow.  Literary  dyspepsia  is  the 
most  common  form  of  mental  disease  among 
us,  and  there  is  no  knowing  what  may  be  the 
extent  of  its  influence  upon  American  civili- 
zation. Fifty  per  cent  of  the  readers  who 
patronize  our  great  public  libraries  have  weak 
literary  stomachs;  they  cannot  digest  anything 
stronger  than  that  insipid  solution,  the  last 
popular  novel,  or  anything  purer  than  the 
muddy  decoctions  poured  out  by  the  periodi- 
cal press.  When,  of  all  the  reading  done  in  a 
[127] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
public  library,  eighty  per  cent  is  of  books  in 
the  different  departments  of  fiction,  I  doubt 
whether,  after  all,  that  library  is  a  public  ben- 
efit. Yet  this  is  but  the  natural  result  of  the 
loose  habits  of  reading  which  we  encourage 
among  our  children,  and  cultivate  in  ourselves, 
— the  habit  of  reading  anything  that  comes  to 
hand,  provided  only  that  it  is  entertaining. 

How  then  shall  we  so  order  the  child's  read- 
ing as  to  avoid  the  formation  of  desultory  and 
aimless  habits? 

Naturally,  the  earliest  reading  is  the  story, 
— simple,  short,  straightforward  recitals  of  mat- 
ters of  daily  occurrence,  of  the  doings  of  chil- 
dren and  their  parents,  their  friends  or  their 
pets.  There  are  not  a  few  good  books  that  con- 
tain excellent  material  of  this  kind;  but  there 
are  so  many  worthless  publications  also  that 
careful  parents  should  look  well  into  that  which 
they  buy.  The  illuminated  covers  are  often  the 
only  recommendation  of  books  of  this  kind. 
Numbers  of  them  are  made  only  for  the  holi- 
day trade;  the  illustrations  of  many  are  from 
[128] 


BOOKS   FOR   CHILDREN   TO   READ 
second-hand  cuts;  and  the  text  is  frequently 
written  to  fit  the  illustrations.  A    pure,  fresh 
book  for  a  little  child  is  a  treasure  to  be  sought 
for  and  appreciated. 

Very  early  in  child  life  comes  the  period  of 
a  belief  in  fairies;  and  the  reading  of  fairy 
stories  is,  to  children,  a  very  proper,  nay,  a  very 
necessary  thing.  I  pity  the  boy  or  girl  who 
must  grow  up  without  having  made  intimate 
acquaintance  with  "Mother  Goose,"  and  the 
delightful  stories  of  "Little  Red  Riding  Hood" 
and  "Cinderella,"  and  those  other  strange  tales 
as  old  as  the  race  itself,  and  yet  new  to  every 
succeeding  generation.  They  are  a  part  of  the 
inheritance  of  the  English-speaking  people,  and 
belong,  as  a  kind  of  birthright,  to  every  intelli- 
gent child. 

As  your  little  reader  advances  in  knowledge 
and  reading  ability,  he  should  be  treated  to 
stronger  food.  Grimm's  "Household  Stories" 
and  the  delightful  "Wonder  Stories"  of  Hans 
Christian  Andersen,  should  form  a  part  of  the 
library  of  every  child  as  he  passes  through  the 
[129] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
"fairy-story  period"  of  his  life;  nor  can  we 
well  omit  to  give  him  "Alice's  Adventures  in 
Wonderland/'  and  Charles  Kingsley's  "Water 
Babies."  And  now,  or  later,  as  circumstances 
shall  dictate,  we  may  introduce  him  to  that 
prince  of  all  wonder-books,  "The  Arabian 
Nights'  Entertainment,"  in  an  edition  carefully 
adapted  to  children's  reading.  The  tales  related 
in  this  book  "are  not  ours  by  birth,  but  they 
have  nevertheless  taken  their  place  amongst 
the  similar  things  of  our  own  which  constitute 
the  national  literary  inheritance.  Altogether,  it 
is  a  glorious  book,  and  one  to  which  we  cannot 
well  show  enough  of  respect." 

And  while  your  reader  lingers  in  the  great 
world  of  poetic  fancy  and  child  wonder,  let 
him  revel  for  a  time  in  those  enchanting  idyls 
and  myths  which  delighted  mankind  when  the 
race  was  young  and  this  earth  was  indeed  a 
wonder-world.  These  he  may  find,  apparelled 
in  a  dress  adapted  to  our  modern  notions  of 
propriety,  in  Hawthorne's  "Wonder  Book"  and 
"Tanglewood  Tales,"  in  Kingsley's  "Greek 
[130] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
Heroes,"  and,  in  a  more  prosaic  form,  in  Cox's 
" Tales  of  Ancient  Greece."  In  "The  Story  of 
Siegfried,"  and,  later,  in  Morris's  "Sigurd  the 
Volsung,"  he  may  read  the  no  less  charming 
myths  of  our  own  northern  ancestors,  and  the 
world-famous  legend  of  the  Nibelungen  heroes. 
Then,  by  a  natural  transition,  you  advance  into 
the  borderland  which  lies  between  the  world 
of  pure  fancy  and  the  domains  of  sober-hued 
reality.  You  introduce  your  reader  to  some 
wholesome  adaptations  of  those  mediaeval  ro- 
mances, which,  with  their  one  grain  of  fact  to 
a  thousand  of  fable,  gave  such  noble  delight 
to  lords  and  ladies  in  the  days  of  chivalry. 
These  you  will  find  in  Sidney  Lanier's  "Boys' 
King  Arthur,"  in  "The  Story  of  Roland,"  by 
the  author  of  the  present  volume,  and  in  Bul- 
finch's  "Legends  of  Charlemagne"  and  "The 
Age  of  Chivalry." 

Do  you  understand  now  to  what  point  you 
have  led  your  young  reader?  You  have  simply 
followed  the  order  of  nature  and  of  human  de- 
velopment, and   you   have    gradually — almost 
[131] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
imperceptibly  even  to  yourself — brought  him 
out  of  the  world  of  child  wonder  and  fairy  land, 
through  the  middle  ground  of  chivalric  ro- 
mance, to  the  very  borders  of  the  domains  of 
history.  He  is  ready  and  eager  to  enter  into  the 
realms  of  sober-hued  truth;  but  I  would  not 
advise  undue  haste  in  this  matter.  The  mediae- 
val romances  have  inspired  him  with  a  desire 
to  know  more  of  those  days  when  knights- 
errant  rode  over  sea  and  land  to  do  battle  in 
the  name  of  God  and  for  the  honor  of  their 
king,  the  Church,  and  the  ladies;  he  wants  to 
know  something  more  nearly  the  truth  than 
that  which  the  minstrels  and  story-tellers  of 
the  Middle  Ages  can  tell  him.  And  yet  he  is 
not  prepared  for  a  sudden  transition  from  ro- 
mance to  history. 

Let  him  read  "Ivanhoe"  and  "The  Talis- 
man"; then  give  him  the  "Story  of  Robin 
Hood"  and  introduce  to  him  some  of  the  old 
ballads  that  have  stirred  the  hearts  of  so  many 
generations  of  men  and  boys.  Can  you  with- 
hold history  longer  from  your  reader?  I  think 
[132] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
not.  He  will  demand  some  authentic  knowl- 
edge of  Richard  the  Lion-hearted,  and  of  King 
John,  and  of  the  Saxons  and  Normans,  and 
of  the  Crusades,  and  of  the  Saracens,  and  of 
Charlemagne  and  his  peers.  Lose  not  your  op- 
portunity, but  pass  over  with  your  pupil  into 
the  promised  land.  The  transition  is  easy, — 
imperceptible,  in  fact, — and,  leaving  fiction 
and  "the  story"  behind  you,  you  enter  the 
fields  of  truth  and  history.  The  way  is  clear 
now,  the  road  is  open,  you  need  no  further 
guidance — only,  keep  straight  ahead  and  be 
sure  that  the  books  which  you  choose  are  well- 
written  and  truthful.  There  are  so  many  such 
books  in  the  school  libraries  nowadays  that  it 
seems  unnecessary  to  specify  them  by  name. 

There  are  other  books,  of  course,  which  the 
young  reader  will  find  in  his  way,  and  which 
it  is  altogether  proper  and  necessary  that  he 
should  read.  For  instance,  there  is  "Robinson 
Crusoe,"  without  a  knowledge  of  which  the 
boy  loses  one  of  his  dearest  enjoyments.  "How 
youth  passed  long  ago,  when  there  was  no 
[133] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
Crusoe  to  waft  it  away  in  fancy  to  the  Pacific 
and  fix  it  upon  the  lonely  doings  of  the  ship- 
wrecked mariner,  is  inconceivable;  but  we  can 
readily  suppose  that  it  must  have  been  differ- 
ent," says  Robert  Chambers.  And  no  substi- 
tute for  the  original  Robinson  will  answer.  Not 
one  of  the  thousand  tales  of  adventure  re- 
cently published  for  boys  will  fill  the  niche 
which  this  book  fills,  or  atone  in  the  least 
for  any  neglect  of  its  merits.  If  something  is 
wanted  that  is  more  truly  sensational,  but  at 
the  same  time  wholesome  and  strong,  let  him 
read  Stevenson's  "Treasure  Island."  A  little 
diet  of  this  sort  will  do  a  boy  good  now  and 
then,  provided  it  is  given  judiciously.  Among 
the  really  unexceptionable  books,  of  the  health- 
ful, hopeful,  truthful  sort,  I  may  name  "Tom 
Brown's  School  Days  at  Rugby,"  Ruskin's 
"King  of  the  Golden  River,"  Mrs.  Burnett's 
"Little  Lord  Fauntleroy,"  Mrs.  Dodge's  "Hans 
Brinker,"  the  inimitable  "Bodley  Books," 
Lang's  Animal  Story  Books,  the  old-fashioned 
"Franconia  Stories,"  by  Abbott,  and  others 
[134] 


BOOKS  FOR  CHILDREN  TO  READ 
in  the  line  of  history  or  travels,  to  be  men- 
tioned hereafter.  These  I  believe  to  be,  in 
every  sense,  proper,  wholesome  books,  free 
from  all  kinds  of  mannerisms,  free  from  im- 
proper language,  free  from  sickly  sentiment 
and  "gush";  and  these,  if  not  the  most  in- 
structive books,  are  the  sort  of  books  which 
the  child  or  youth  should  read  as  a  kind  of 
relish  or  supplement  to  the  more  methodical 
course  of  reading  which  should  form  a  part  of 
his  education. 

In  this  careful  direction  of  the  child's  read- 
ing, and  in  the  cultivation  of  his  literary  tastes, 
if  you  have  succeeded  in  bringing  him  to  the 
point  which  we  have  indicated,  you  have  done 
much  towards  forming  his  character  for  life. 
There  is  little  danger  that  bad  books  will  ever 
possess  any  attractions  for  him;  he  will  hence- 
forth be  apt  to  go  right  of  his  own  accord,  pre- 
ferring the  wholesome  and  the  true  to  any  of 
the  flashy  allurements  of  the  "literary  slums 
and  grogshops,"  which  so  abound  and  flourish 
in  these  days. 

[135] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

But  perhaps  the  fundamental  error  in  deter- 
mining what  books  children  shall  read  lies  in 
the  very  popular  notion  that  to  read  much, 
and  to  derive  pleasure  and  profit  from  our 
reading,  many  books  are  necessary.  And  the 
greatest  obstacle  in  the  way  of  forming  and 
directing  a  proper  taste  for  good  reading  is 
to  be  found,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  not 
in  the  scarcity,  but  in  the  superabundance  of 
reading  matter.  The  great  flood  of  periodical 
literature  for  young  people  is  the  worst  hin- 
drance to  the  formation  of  right  habits  in 
reading.  Some  of  these  periodicals  are  simply 
unadulterated  "pen  poison,"  designed  not 
only  to  enrich  their  projectors,  but  to  deprave 
the  minds  of  those  who  read.  Others  are  pub- 
lished, doubtless,  from  pure  motives  and  with 
the  best  intentions;  but,  being  managed  by 
inexperienced  or  incapable  editors,  they  are, 
at  the  best,  but  thin  dilutions  of  milk-and- 
water  literature,  leading  to  mental  imbecility 
and  starvation.  The  periodicals  fit  to  be  placed 
in  the  hands  of  reading  children  may  be  num- 
[136] 


BOOKS   FOR   CHILDREN   TO    READ 

bered  on  half  your  fingers;  and  even  these 
should  not  be  read  without  due  discrimination. 
Too  great  a  variety  of  books  or  papers  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  inexperienced  readers  offers 
a  premium  to  desultoriness,  and  fosters  and  en- 
courages the  habit  of  devouring  every  species 
of  literary  food  that  comes  to  hand.  Hence  we 
should  beware  not  only  of  the  bad,  but  of  too 
great  plenty  of  the  good.  "The  benefit  of  a 
right  good  book/'  says  Mr.  Hudson,  "all  de- 
pends upon  this,  that  its  virtue  just  soak  into 
the  mind,  and  there  become  a  living,  genera- 
tive force.  To  be  running  and  rambling  over  a 
great  many  books,  tasting  a  little  here,  a  little 
there,  and  tying  up  with  none,  is  good  for 
nothing;  nay,  worse  than  nothing.  Such  a  pro- 
cess of  unceasing  change  is  also  a  discipline  of 
perpetual  emptiness.  The  right  method  in  the 
culture  of  the  mind  is  to  take  a  few  choice 
books,  and  weave  about  them 

'The  fixed  delights  of  house  and  home, 
Friendship  that  will  not  break,  and  love  that  cannot 
roam.'" 

[137] 


THE   LIBRARY   IN   THE   SCHOOL 


What  sort  of  reading  are  our  schools  planting  an 
appetite  for?  Are  they  really  doing  anything  to  in- 
struct and  form  the  mental  taste,  so  that  the  pupils 
on  leaving  them  may  be  safely  left  to  choose  their 
reading  for  themselves?  It  is  clear  in  evidence  that 
they  are  far  from  educating  the  young  to  take  pleas- 
ure in  what  is  intellectually  noble  and  sweet.  The 
statistics  of  our  public  libraries  show  that  some  cause 
is  working  mightily  to  prepare  them  only  for  delight 
in  what  is  both  morally  and  intellectually  mean  and 
foul.  It  would  not  indeed  be  fair  to  charge  our  public 
schools  with  positively  giving  this  preparation;  but 
it  is  their  business  to  forestall  and  prevent  such  a  re- 
sult. If,  along  with  the  faculty  of  reading,  they  can- 
not also  impart  some  safeguards  of  taste  and  habit 
against  such  a  result,  will  the  system  prove  a  success? 

Henry  N.  Hudson 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE   LIBRARY   IN    THE    SCHOOL 

MUCH  is  being  said,  nowadays,  about  the 
utility  of  school  libraries;  and  in  some 
instances  much  ill-directed,  if  not  entirely  mis- 
directed, labor  is  being  expended  in  their  for- 
mation. Public  libraries  are  not  necessarily 
public  benefits;  and  school  libraries,  unless 
carefully  selected  and  judiciously  managed, 
will  not  prove  to  be  unmixed  blessings.  There 
are  several  questions  which  teachers  and  school 
officers  should  seriously  consider  before  set- 
ting themselves  to  the  task  of  establishing  a 
library;  and  no  teacher  who  is  not  himself  a 
knower  of  books,  and  a  reader,  should  pre- 
sume to  regulate  and  direct  the  reading  of 
others.  In  the  present  chapter  it  is  my  purpose 
to  offer  a  few  general  hints  that  may  be  of 
value  to  those  who  are  intrusted  with  the  duty 
of  forming  libraries  for  young  people. 

What  are  the  objects  of  a  school  library? 
[141] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
They  are  twofold:  First,  to  aid  in  cultivating 
a  taste  for  good   reading;   second,  to  supply 
materials  for  supplementary  study  and  inde- 
pendent research.  Now,  neither  of  these  ob- 
jects can  be  attained   unless   your  library  is 
composed  of  books  selected  with  special  refer- 
ence   to    the    capabilities    and    needs   of  the 
pupils  that  are  to  use  it.  Dealing,  as  you  do, 
with  pupils  of  various  degrees  of  intellectual 
strength,  their  minds  warped  by  every  variety 
of  moral  influence  and  home  training,  the  cul- 
tivation   of  a   taste  for  good  reading  among 
them  is  no  small  matter.  To  do  this,  your  li- 
brary must  contain  none  but  truly  good  books. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  every  collec- 
tion of  books  is  a  library;  and  yet  that  is  the 
name  which  is  applied  to  many  very  inferior 
collections.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  find 
these  so-called  libraries  composed  altogether  of 
the  odds  and  ends  of  literature, — of  donations 
entirely  worthless  to  their  donors;  of  second- 
hand  schoolbooks;   of  Patent  Office    Reports 
and  other  public  documents;  and  of  the  di- 
[142] 


THE  LIBRARY  IN  THE  SCHOOL 
lapidated  remains  of  some  older  and  equally 
worthless  collection  of  books;  and  with  these 
you  talk  about  cultivating  a  taste  for  good 
reading!  One  really  good  book,  a  single  copy 
of  "St.  Nicholas,"  is  worth  more  than  all  this 
trash.  Get  it  out  of  sight  at  once!  The  value 
of  a  library — no  matter  for  what  purpose  it 
has  been  founded — depends,  as  I  have  already 
said,  not  upon  the  number  of  its  books,  but 
upon  their  character.  And  so  the  first  rule  to 
be  observed  in  the  formation  of  a  school  library 
is,  Buy  it  at  first  hand,  even  though  you  should 
begin  with  a  single  volume,  and  shun  all  kinds 
of  donations,  unless  they  be  donations  of  cash, 
or  books  of  unquestionable  value. 

In  selecting  books  for  purchase,  you  will 
have  an  eye  single  to  the  wants  of  the  stu- 
dents who  are  to  use  them.  A  school  library 
should  be  in  no  sense  a  public  circulating 
library.  You  cannot  cater  to  the  literary  tastes 
of  the  public,  and  at  the  same  time  serve  the 
best  interests  of  your  pupils.  Books  relating  to 
history,  to  biography,  and  to  travel  will  form  a 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
very  large  portion  of  your  library.  But  books  of 
fiction — such  as  are  known  to  be  meritorious 
— should  not  be  excluded;  and  poetry  should 
occupy  the  place  of  honor  upon  your  shelves. 
For  the  younger  children,  you  should  not  neg- 
lect to  supply  a  few  books  of  that  type  re- 
ferred to  in  the  preceding  chapter, — stories 
which  cultivate  the  imagination  and  strengthen 
the   understanding   while   they   at   the    same 
time  allow  a  healthful  and  delightful  relaxa- 
tion from  the  severer  studies  of  the  school- 
room.   No    book    should    be    bought    merely 
because  it  is  a  good  book,  but  because  it  can 
be  made  useful  in  the  attainment  of  certain 
desired  ends.  The  brief  lists  in  the  following 
chapters,  it  is  hoped,  will  assist  you  somewhat 
in  making  a  wise  selection  as  well  as  in  direct- 
ing to  a  judicious  use  of  books.  For  the  selec- 
tion of  a  book  is  only  half  of  a  teacher's  or  a 
parent's  duty:  the  proper  and  profitable  use  of 
it  is  the  other  half;  and  this  lesson  should  be 
early  taught  to  all  young  people. 

The  proper  and  profitable  use  of  books, — 
[144] 


THE  LIBRARY  IN  THE  SCHOOL 
this  implies  many  things.  In  the  first  place, 
every  child  should  learn  how  to  handle  them 
carefully,  reverentially,  as  things  of  greater 
worth  than  mere  dead  matter.  There  is  scarcely 
anything  more  painful  to  the  book  lover  than 
to  see  books  abused.  And  yet  how  few  people 
seem  to  regard  them  as  more  than  so  many 
packages  of  waste  paper  having  a  certain  money 
value!  How  few,  among  all  those  who  read, 
appear  to  recognize  in  a  good  book  "the  pre- 
cious life-blood  of  a  master  spirit"!  How  few 
treat  these  silent  yet  expressive  friends  with 
anything  approaching  due  respect!  The  ex- 
ample of  Douglas  Jerrold  may  be  quoted  as 
illustrating  that  genuine  love  of  books  which 
prompts  their  owner  to  care  for  them  as  for 
his  dearest  companions.  "He  had  an  almost 
reverential  fondness  for  books, — books  them- 
selves,— and  said  that  he  could  not  bear  to 
treat  them,  or  see  them  treated,  with  disre- 
spect. He  told  us  it  gave  him  pain  to  see  them 
turned  on  their  faces,  stretched  open,  or  dog's- 
eared,  or  carelessly  flung  down,  or  in  any  way 
[145] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
misused.  He  told  us  this  holding  a  volume  in 
his  hand  with  a  caressing  gesture,  as  though 
he  tendered  it  affectionately  and  gratefully  for 
the  pleasure  it  had  given  him.  He  spoke  like 
one  who  had  known  what  it  was  in  former 
years  to  buy  a  book  when  its  purchase  involved 
a  sacrifice  of  some  other  object  from  a  not 
over-stored  purse.  We  have  often  noticed  this 
in  book  lovers  who  like  ourselves  have  had 
volumes  come  into  cherished  possession  at 
times  when  their  glad  owners  were  not  rich 
enough  to  easily  afford  book-purchases.  Charles 
Lamb  had  this  tenderness  for  books,  caring 
nothing  for  their  gaudy  clothing,  but  hugging 
a  rare  folio  all  the  nearer  to  his  heart  for  its 
worn  edges  and  shabby  binding."1 

The  first  lesson  learned  by  pupils  having 
access  to  a  school  library  should  be  such  as 
will  lead  them  to  have  this  reverence  for  good 
books.  Care  should  be  taken  that  no  species 
of  injury  shall  occur.  A  book  when  once  taken 

1  Recollections  of  Writers,  by  Charles  and  Mary  Cow- 
den  Clarke. 

[146] 


THE   LIBRARY   IN   THE   SCHOOL 

from  its  shelf  should  be  returned  in  due  time 
in  perfectly  good  condition.  Soiled  hands  should 
not  be  permitted  to  touch,  much  less  to  open 
a  volume.  The  child  should  be  taught  that 
under  no  circumstances  should  he  turn  the 
leaves  with  wetted  fingers,  or  fold  the  corners 
to  mark  the  place,  or  lay  the  open  book  down 
upon  its  face  where  he  has  left  off  reading.  He 
should,  moreover,  be  led  to  a  proper  admiration 
of  handsome  bindings, — an  admiration  which 
will  enjoin  careful  handling,  and  induce  that 
instinctive  respect  which  all  feel  for  beauty 
of  dress.  For  this  latter  reason  I  deplore  the 
custom — useless,  as  it  seems  to  me — of  cover- 
ing library  books  with  those  unsightly  manila 
covers  which  do  but  provoke  disrespect  and 
vandalism.  If  teachers  do  their  duty  in  this 
matter,  uncovered  books  will  outlast  those 
subjected  to  such  indignity.  And  how  much 
more  pleasant,  when  standing  in  front  of  the 
shelves,  to  see  the  smiling  faces  of  our  friends 
looking  down  upon  us,  than  to  confront  a 
monotonous  array  of  yellowish  brown  bundles 
[  147  I 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

as  devoid  of  expression  as  they  are  lacking  in 
beauty! 

Next  to  the  care  of  the  books  should  be  con- 
sidered the  order  and  manner  in  which  they 
are  read.  I  would  not  advise  that  teachers  or 
even  parents  should  every  time  select  the 
books  which  a  child  is  to  read.  A  boy  will  gen- 
erally read  with  much  more  zest  and  interest  a 
book  which  he  has  chosen  for  himself.  But  the 
teacher  should  give  such  general  instruction 
and  directions  as  will,  while  they  leave  some  lat- 
itude for  choice,  always  lead  to  a  wise  selection. 

As  the  pupil  advances  in  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge,  he  should  be  given  more  definite 
instruction  as  to  the  manner  in  which  he  may 
systematize  his  reading  so  as  to  lead  to  the 
best  possible  results.  More  than  this,  he  should 
on  occasion  be  held  to  as  strict  account  in  the 
matter  of  his  reading  as  in  that  of  any  other 
part  of  his  school  work;  and  he  should  be 
brought  so  constantly  into  contact  with  books 
that  he  will  unconsciously  acquire  a  ready  skill 
in  using  them  for  purposes  of  reference. 
[148] 


THE  LIBRARY  IN  THE  SCHOOL 
It  too  often  happens  in  schools  where  the 
ordinary  catechetical  methods  of  instruction 
are  closely  followed,  that  the  pupil's  interest 
in  his  studies  is  centred  upon  the  recitation 
and  ends  with  the  examination.  The  text-book, 
to  ordinary  minds,  is  a  dry  compilation  of  facts 
or  theories, — so  dry  that  only  the  brightest 
intellects  succeed  in  discovering  any  relation- 
ship between  its  world  of  abstractions  and  the 
real  world  of  life  and  thought  around  us.  But 
suppose  that  in  each  school  there  were  a  small 
working  library,  such  as  I  have  described,  and 
an  earnest,  skilful  teacher  to  direct  its  use.  The 
legitimate  work  of  the  school,  far  from  being 
hindered,  is  advanced  and  perfected  through 
the  wise  use  of  good  books;  the  minds  of  the 
pupils  are  awakened  to  a  conception  of  grander 
things  and  nobler  possibilities  than  the  ordi- 
nary narrow  routine  of  text-book  instruction 
could  ever  open  to  their  view;  and,  more  than 
this,  they  are  daily  acquiring  a  healthful  taste 
for  the  best  reading, — a  taste  which  does  away 
with  all  necessity  for  declamatory  warnings 
[149] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

against  bad  literature.  Moreover,  the  children 
having  the  key  of  knowledge,  and  being 
taught  how  to  use  it,  are  inspired  with  a  love 
for  the  acquisition  of  learning  and  a  wholesome 
ambition  which  will  henceforth  be  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  their  lives,  and  an  integral  part 
of  their  happiness. 

In  a  former  chapter  I  have  shown  how,  with 
a  library  of  only  fifty  volumes,  one  may  have 
in  his  possession  the  very  best  of  all  that  the 
world's  master-minds  have  ever  written, — 
food  sufficient  for  a  lifetime  of  study,  and 
meditation,  and  mind-growth.  Such  a  library 
is  worth  more  than  ten  thousand  volumes  of 
the  ordinary  " popular"  kind  of  books.  So, 
also,  the  careful  and  methodical  reading  of  a 
very  few  of  the  best  books  will  give  to  all 
young  people  more  enjoyment  and  infinitely 
greater  profit  than  the  desultory  or  hasty  pe- 
rusal of  many  inferior  volumes.  A  small  library 
is  to  be  despised  only  when  it  contains  in- 
ferior books. 

[150] 


BOOKS   RELATING   TO   ANCIENT 
HISTORY 


History  is  a  voice  forever  sounding  across  the  cen- 
turies the  laws  of  right  and  wrong.  Opinions  alter, 
manners  change,  creeds  rise  and  fall ;  but  the  moral 
law  is  written  on  the  tablets  of  eternity.  .  .  .  Justice 
and  truth  alone  endure  and  live.  Injustice  and  false- 
hood may  be  long-lived,  but  doomsday  comes  at  last 
to  them  in  French  revolutions  and  other  terrible  ways. 
That  is  one  lesson  of  history.  Another  is,  that  we 
should  draw  no  horoscopes;  that  we  should  expect 
little,  for  what  we  expect  will  not  come  to  pass. 

James  Anthony  Froude 


CHAPTER   VII 

BOOKS    RELATING   TO   ANCIENT 
HISTORY 

TO  systematize  one's  reading  so  as  to  get 
from  it  the  largest  returns  both  of  pleas- 
ure and  of  profit  is  a  problem  which  every  in- 
telligent person  ought  to  consider.  And  yet  how 
few  there  are  who  ever  think  of  doing  this! 
Most  readers,  nowadays,  are  of  the  omnivorous 
sort.  They  devour  whatever  comes  to  hand — 
provided  it  is  interesting.  The  good,  the  bad, 
the  indifferent,  the  sweet,  the  tasteless  are  all 
alike  to  them  so  long  as  they  are  amused.  They 
read  without  criticism  or  any  pretence  at  order; 
they  are  little  wiser  after  much  poring  over 
books  than  when  they  began.  If  they  only  knew 
and  would  practise  the  happy  art  of  reading 
for  a  purpose,  how  much  greater  and  more 
genuine  would  be  their  pleasure!  Then  each 
hour  spent  with  a  book  would  bring  its  re- 
wards— some  new  idea  unfolded,  some  pleas- 
[  153] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
ing  image  presented,  some  noble  thought  en- 
gendered, some  important  fact  learned. 

Will  you  make  the  best  of  the  opportunities 
that  are  within  your  reach?  Then  you  will  so 
order  at  least  a  portion  of  your  reading  that  it 
will  lead  in  the  end  to  some  definite  and  tan- 
gible results.  Whether  you  prefer  history,  or  bi- 
ography, or  fiction,  or  poetry,  or  science,  or  phi- 
losophy, read  with  method  and  with  the  fixed 
resolve  to  add  steadily  to  your  intellectual  at- 
tainments. Select  some  course  of  reading  which 
you  can  pursue  for  at  least  a  twelvemonth,  and 
then  see  how  much  more  you  have  gained  than 
would  have  been  possible  through  following 
the  old  omnivorous  habit.  Choose  that  which 
you  like  best,  or  which  you  need  most;  and 
whether  you  have  access  to  many  books  or  few, 
read  for  profit — and  your  reward  will  be  pleas- 
ure of  that  sort  which  comes  with  wisdom. 

The  lists  of  books  in  this  and  the  following 

chapters  have  been  prepared  for  the  purpose  of 

helping  such  persons  as  wish  to  mark  out  for 

themselves  and  follow  some  definite  and  profit- 

[154] 


RELATING  TO  ANCIENT  HISTORY 
able  course  of  reading.  They  are  for  him  that 
reads  little,  as  well  as  for  him  that  reads  much ; 
for  the  busy  clerk  who  must  read  by  snatches, 
as  well  as  for  the  student  who  gives  his  days 
and  nights  to  books.  Only  this  difference  is  ob- 
served: the  one  can  choose  but  few  books  and 
must  choose  them  wisely,  the  other  may  read 
many  but  must  read  with  discrimination.  Con- 
sider what  accession  of  knowledge  and  culture 
may  be  yours  by  one  year's  reading,  say,  of 
some  of  the  books  named  in  the  first  brief  list; 
then  think  of  the  liberal  education  you  may 
acquire  through  such  reading  pursued  during 
a  series  of  years.  You  need  give  no  more  time 
to  it  than  you  devote  daily  to  your  newspaper 
— but  observe  the  difference. 

These  lists  have  still  another  purpose.  Are 
you  forming  a  library  of  your  own?  Are  you 
selecting  your  books  not  at  random  but  with  a 
definite  object  in  view?  Then  the  titles  here 
given  may  be  of  value  to  you.  If  you  wish  your 
library  to  be  rich  in  historical  works,  here  the 
best  books  are  named  in  order.  If  you  prefer 
[  155] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
some  other  department  of  literature — geog- 
raphy, travels,  nature,  philosophy,  poetry,  fic- 
tion— here  are  the  titles  of  many  volumes  of 
enduring  interest  from  which  you  may  choose. 
An  effort  has  been  made  to  name  only  the 
best  or  standard  works  in  each  department. 
Occasionally,  perhaps,  an  inferior  book  may  be 
mentioned  because  no  better  one  exists  to  fill 
exactly  the  same  place.  As  a  general  rule  the 
titles  are  arranged  in  groups  according  either 
to  subjects  or  to  chronological  sequence.  We 
begin  with  the  ancient  world,  with  Egypt  and 
Assyria  and  Greece,  because  it  was  there  that 
history  had  its  origins;  but  each  reader  must 
select  for  himself  his  own  starting-point  in  any 
course  of  reading. 

I.  EGYPT  AND  THE  EAST 

Let  us  search  more  and  more  into  the  Past;  let  all 
men  explore  it  as  the  true  fountain  of  knowledge,  by 
whose  light  alone,  consciously  or  unconsciously  em- 
ployed, can  the  Present  and  the  Future  be  interpreted 
or  guessed  at.  Carlyle 

Petrie  :  History  of  Egypt  (a  comprehensive  and  im- 
portant work). 

[  156] 


RELATING   TO   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Maspero  :  The  Dawn  of  Civilization. 

Maspero  :  The  Struggle  of  the  Nations. 

Maspero  :  The  Passing  of  the  Empires. 
(These  three  works  taken  together  present  a  com- 
plete view  of  the  life,  manners,  and  history  of  the 
nations  of  antiquity. ) 

Maspero  :  Life  in  Ancient  Egypt  and  Assyria. 
(A  smaller  and  more  popular  work.) 

Erman  :  Life  in  Ancient  Egypt. 

Rawlinson  :  The  Story  of  Ancient  Egypt. 

Brugsch  Bey  :  History  of  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs. 

Miss  Edwards  :  Pharaohs,  Fellahs,  and  Explorers. 

Perrot  and  Chipiez  :  Art  in  Ancient  Egypt. 

La  yard  :  Nineveh  and  its  Remains. 
Sayce  :  Social  Life  among  the  Assyrians. 

Gratz  :  History  of  the  Jews. 

Clodd  :  Sketch  of  Jewish  History. 

Besant  and   Palmer:   History  of  Jerusalem  (from 

70  a.  d.  to  1500  A.  D.). 
Latimer  :  Judea  from  Cyrus  to  Titus  (537  b.  c.  to 

70  A.  D.). 

Ebers  :  Uarda  (romance  descriptive  of  Egyptian  life 

and  manners  fourteen  centuries  before  Christ). 
Ebers  :  An  Egyptian  Princess  (romance  of  Egypt  and 

Babylon  five  centuries  before  Christ). 
Crawford  :  Zoroaster  (romance,  time  of  Belshazzar). 
Ludlow:  Deborah  (historical  romance,  time  of  the 

Maccabees). 
Wallace:  Ben  Hur  (romance,  Palestine  and  Rome, 

time  of  Christ). 

[157] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

II.   GREECE 

History,  at  least  in  its  state  of  ideal  perfection,  is  a 
compound  of  poetry  and  philosophy.  Macaulay 

BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE 

Two  things  very  necessary  to  every  reader  of  an- 
cient history  are  a  good  classical  dictionary  and  a 
handy  classical  atlas.  The  following  are  among  the 
best :  — 

Anthon  :  Classical  Dictionary. 
Smith  :  Students'  Classical  Dictionary. 
Smith  :  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities. 
Long  :  Atlas  of  Classical  Geography. 
Kiepert  :  Ancient  Atlas. 

GENERAL    HISTORIES 

Cox :  General  History  of  Greece. 
Evelyn  Abbott  :  History  of  Greece. 
Smith  :  Smaller  History  of  Greece. 
Felton  :  Ancient  and  Modern  Greece. 
Harrison  :  The  Story  of  Greece. 
Grote:  History  of  Greece  (12  vols.). 
Curtius  :  History  of  Greece,  translated  from  the  Ger- 
man by  A.  W.  Ward  (5  vols. ). 
J.  A.  St.  John  :  Ancient  Greece. 

MYTHOLOGY 

Dwight  :  Grecian  and  Roman  Mythology. 
Guerber  :  Myths  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
Keightley  :  Classical  Mythology. 
Ruskin  :  The  Queen  of  the  Air. 
[  158] 


RELATING   TO   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

LITERATURE 

Homer's  Iliad  and  Odyssey.  Chapman's  translation 
is  the  best.  Among  the  later  versions,  Lord  Derby's 
and  William  Cullen  Bryant's  are  recommended. 
Pope's  is  classical,  but  it  has  in  it  "more  of  Pope 
than  of  Homer." 

Butcher  and  Lang's  prose  translation  of  the  Odys- 
sey, and  Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers's  translation  of 
the  Iliad  are  admirable  renderings,  and  are  in  some 
respects  preferable  to  any  metrical  version. 

Herodotus.  Translation  by  Rawlinson. 

Thucydides.  Translation  by  Jowett. 

iEscHYLus.  Milman's  Agamemnon,  and  Mrs.  Brown- 
ing's Prometheus. 

Euripides.  Metrical  translation  by  A.  S.  Way. 

Sophocles.  Plumptre's  translation. 

Aristophanes  :  The  Clouds.  Translated  by  Mitchell. 

Plato  :  Dialogues.  Translated  by  Jowett. 

Plato  :  The  Apology  of  Socrates. 

Theocritus.  Lang's  prose  translation. 

Mahaffy  :  History  of  Classical  Greek  Literature. 

Symonds  :  Studies  of  the  Greek  Poets. 

Evelyn  Abbott  :  Helenica. 

Moulton  :  The  Ancient  Classical  Drama. 

Pater  :  Greek  Studies. 

Capps  :  From  Homer  to  Theocritus. 
Also  the  following  volumes  of  Ancient  Classics  for 

English  Readers  :  — 

Copleston's  jEschylus;  Donne's  Euripides;  Collins's 
Aristophanes;  Brodribb's  Demosthenes;  Collins's 
Plato;  Grant's  Xenophon;  Collins's  Thucydides; 
Swayne's  Herodotus. 

[  159] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

SPECIAL    PERIODS 

Cox :  The  Greeks  and  the  Persians. 

Sankey  :  The  Spartan  Supremacy. 

Grant  :  Greece  in  the  Age  of  Pericles  (fifth  century 

before  Christ). 
Cox :  The  Athenian  Empire. 
Evelyn  Abbott:  Pericles   and  the  Golden  Age   of 

Athens. 
Curteis  :  The  Macedonian  Empire. 

Butcher  :  Demosthenes  (Classical  Writers). 
Mahaffy  :  The  Story  of  Alexander's  Empire. 
Wheeler  :  Alexander  the  Great. 

LIFE    AND    MANNERS 

Mahaffy  :  Social  Life  in  Greece. 
Mahaffy  :  Old  Greek  Life. 

Guhl  and  Koner  :  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
Seymour  :  Life  in  Greece  in  the  Homeric  Age. 
Blummer  :  Home  Life  of  the  Ancient  Greeks  (trans- 
lation by  Helen  Zimmern). 

FICTION 

Becker  :  Charicles  (romance  illustrating  life  and  man- 
ners). 

Bulwer  :  Pausanias  the  Spartan  (475  b.  c. ). 

Landor  :  Pericles  and  Aspasia  (440  b.  c. ). 

Mrs.  L.  M.  Child:  Philothea  (romance  of  the  time  of 
Pericles). 

Greenough:   Apelles   and   his   Contemporaries   (ro- 
mance of  the  time  of  Alexander). 

Mariager  :  Pictures  of  Hellas  (five  tales  of  ancient 
Greece). 

[160] 


RELATING   TO   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

FOR    YOUNG    READERS 

Church  :  Stories  from  Herodotus. 

Church  :  Stories  from  Homer. 

Church  :  Stories  from  the  Greek  Tragedians. 

Church  :  Stories  from  the  Greek  Comedians. 

Baldwin  :  A  Story  of  the  Golden  Age  (adventures  of 

Odysseus  and  the  Greek  Heroes  before  the  Trojan 

War). 
Baldwin  :  Old  Greek  Stories. 
Kingsley  :  The  Greek  Heroes. 
Hawthorne  :  The  Wonder  Book. 
HAwraoRNE :  Tanglewood  Tales. 
Cox :  Tales  of  Ancient  Greece. 

Lamb  :  Adventures  of  Ulysses  (after  the  Trojan  War). 
Lang's  translation  of  the  Odyssey. 
White  :  Plutarch  for  Boys  and  Girls. 
Witt  :  Myths  of  Hellas. 
Witt  :  The  Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand. 
Walpole  :  Little  Arthur's  History  of  Greece. 

III.   ROME 

The  student  is  to  read  history  actively  and  not  pas- 
sively ;  to  esteem  his  own  life  the  text,  and  books  the 
commentary.  Thus  compelled,  the  Muse  of  history 
will  utter  oracles,  as  never  to  those  who  do  not  re- 
spect themselves.  Emerson 

GENERAL    HISTORIES 

Duruy:  History  of  Rome  and  the  Roman  People 

(the  best  for  reference). 
Smith  :  Smaller  History  of  Rome. 
[161] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Merivale  :  General  History  of  Rome. 
Gilman  :  The  Story  of  Rome. 
Creighton  :  History  of  Rome. 

FOR    THE    PERIOD    PRECEDING    THE    EMPIRE 

Mommsen  :  History  of  Rome  (4  vols.  A  very  scholarly 

and  comprehensive  work). 
Ihxe:  History  of  Rome  (5  vols.). 
Arnold  :  History  of  Rome. 
Church  :  The  Story  of  Carthage. 
Freeman  :  Hannibal  and  the  Struggle  between  Rome 

and  Carthage. 
Beesly  :  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla. 
Merivale  :  Fall  of  the  Roman  Republic. 
Lanciani  :  Destruction  of  Ancient  Rome. 

Shakespeare  :  The  Tragedy  of  Coriolanus  (490  r.  c. ). 
Macaulay  :  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome  (poems). 
Lanciani  :  New  Tales  of  Ancient  Rome. 

FOR    THE    PERIOD    OF    THE    CAESARS    AND    THE 
EARLY    EMPIRE 

Merivale  :  A  History  of  the  Romans  under  the  Em- 
pire (fills  the  gap  between  Mommsen  and  Gibbon). 

Fowler:  Julius  Caesar  and  the  Organization  of  the 
Roman  Empire. 

Froude  :  Caesar,  a  Sketch. 

Forsyth  :  Life  of  Cicero. 

Capes  :  The  Early  Empire. 

De  Quincey  :  The  Caesars. 

Lanciani  :  Pagan  and  Christian  Rome. 

Baring-Gould  :  The  Tragedy  of  the  Caesars. 
[162] 


RELATING   TO   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

Becker  :  Gallus  (romance  of  life  and  manners  in  time 

of  Tiberius). 
Guhl  and  Koner  :  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
Church    and    Brodribb:   Pliny's    Letters  (Ancient 

Classics  for  English  Readers). 

Ebers  :  Cleopatra  (romance,  time  of  Augustus). 

Wallace  :  Ben  Hur  (romance,  time  of  Tiberius). 

Sienkiewicz  :  Quo  Vadis  (romance,  time  of  Nero). 

Tolstoi  :  Work  while  ye  have  Light  (story  of  the  early 
Christians). 

Hoffman  :  The  Greek  Maid  at  the  Court  of  Nero  (ro- 
mance). 

Wiseman  :  The  Church  of  the  Catacombs  (romance, 
time  of  the  persecutions). 

Mrs.  Charles  :  The  Victory  of  the  Vanquished  (story). 

Bulwer  :  The  Last  Days  of  Pompeii  (romance,  time 
of  Vespasian). 

Eckstein:  Quintus  Claudius  (romance,  time  of  Do- 
mitian). 

Dickinson  :  The  Seed  of  the  Church. 

De  Mille  :  Helena's  Household. 

Lockhart  :  Valerius. 
(The  last  three  works  are  romances  of  the  time  of 
Trajan.) 

Georg  Taylor:   Antinous   (romance,   time   of  Ha- 
drian). 

Addison  :  The  Tragedy  of  Cato  (drama). 
Ben  Jonson  :  Catiline  (drama). 

Ben  Jonson:   Sejanus,  his  Fall  (drama,  time  of  Ti- 
berius). 
Shakespeare  :  Julius  Caesar  (drama). 
[163] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 

Shakespeare  :  Antony  and  Cleopatra  (drama). 
Massinger:  The  Roman  Actor  (drama,  time  of  Do- 
mitian). 

Plutarch  :  Lives  of  Illustrious  Greeks  and  Romans. 
Farrar  :  Seekers  after  God  (sketches  of  Seneca  and 

Epictetus). 
Crawford  :  Ave  Roma  Immortalis. 
Lanciani  :  The  Destruction  of  Ancient  Rome. 

FOR    THE    PERIOD    OF    THE    LATER    EMPIRE 

Gibbon  :  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Curteis:   History  of  the   Roman   Empire  (395-800 

A.  D.). 

Capes  :  The  Age  of  the  Antonines. 
Hodgkin  :  Italy  and  her  Invaders. 
Hodgkin  :  Theodoric  the  Goth. 
Kingsley  :  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 
Church  :  The  Beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Pater:  Marius  the  Epicurean  (romance,  150  a.d.). 

Ebers  :  Per  Aspera  (romance  of  Alexandria,  220  a.  d.). 

Ware:  Zenobia  (romance,  266  a.d.). 

Ware:  Aurelian  (romance,  275  a.d.). 

Ebers  :  Homo  Sum  (romance,  330  a.  d.  ). 

Ebers  :  Serapis  (romance  of  Alexandria,  time  of  Theo- 

dosius). 
Wilkie  Collins  :  Antonina  (romance,  fifth  century). 
Kingsley:    Hypatia    (romance   of  Alexandria,    415 

A.D.). 

Aubrey  de  Vere:  Julian  the  Apostate  (drama,  363 

A.D.). 

[164] 


RELATING  TO   ANCIENT   HISTORY 

LITERATURE 

Livy.  Translation  by  Spiilan  and  Edwards. 

Tacitus.  Translation  by  Church  and  Brodribb. 

Virgil:  ^Eneid.  Translation  by  William  Morris. 

Virgil  :  Works.  Translation  by  Conington. 

Caesar's  Commentaries.  Translation  in  Bohn's  Classi- 
cal Library. 

Cicero's  Orations.  Yonge's  translation. 

Epictetus  :  Selections  (translated  by  Long). 

Marcus  Aurelius  :  Meditations  (translated  by  Long). 

Simcox:  History  of  Latin  Literature  (200  h.c.  to 
500  A.  D.). 

Cruttwell:  History  of  Roman  Literature  (240  b.c. 

to  180  A.  D.). 

Also  the  following  volumes  in  the  series  of  Ancient 
Classics  for  English  Readers  :  — 
Collins:  Livy,  Cicero,  Virgil,  Ovid,  Lucian  (5  vols.). 
Mallock  :  Lucretius. 
Trollope:  Caesar. 

SPECIAL    REFERENCE 

Coulanges  :  The  Ancient  City. 

Draper  :  History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of 

Europe. 
Lecky  :  History  of  European  Morals. 
Milman  :  History  of  Christianity. 
Stanley  :  History  of  the  Eastern  Church. 
Fisher  :  Beginnings  of  Christianity. 
Dollinger  :  The  First  Age  of  Christianity. 
Montalembert  :  The  Monks  of  the  West 
Reber  :  History  of  Ancient  Art. 

[165] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

FOR    YOUNG    READERS 

Church  :  Stories  from  Virgil. 

Church  :  Stories  from  Livy. 

Church  :  Roman  Life  in  the  Days  of  Cicero. 

Church  :  Pictures  from  Roman  Life  and  Story. 

Yonge  :  Young  Folks'  History  of  Rome. 

Abbott  :  History  of  Romulus. 

Abbott  :  History  of  Hannibal. 

Abbott  :  History  of  Julius  Csesar. 

Abbott  :  History  of  Nero. 

Church  :  The  Burning  of  Rome. 

White  :  Plutarch  for  Boys  and  Girls. 

Mrs.  Charles  :  Conquering  and  to  Conquer  (romance, 
418  A.  D.). 

Mrs.  Charles  :  Maid  and  Cleon  (romance  of  Alexan- 
dria, 425  a.d.). 


[166] 


BOOKS   RELATING   TO    MODERN 
HISTORY 


The  use  of  history  is  to  give  value  to  the  present 
hour  and  its  duty. 

Emerson 


CHAPTER   VIII 

BOOKS   RELATING    TO   MODERN 

HISTORY 

I.  ENGLAND  AND  CONTINENTAL  EUROPE 

THIS  list,  although  arranged  with  special 
reference  to  English  history,  includes 
also  the  titles  of  the  best  works  relating  to  the 
Continental  nations  of  Europe.  It  may  there- 
fore be  regarded  as  a  complete  guide,  within 
its  limits,  to  mediaeval  and  modern  history. 
While  naming  sufficient  books  for  a  number  of 
courses  of  reading  on  English  subjects,  it  also 
designates  suitable  works  for  collateral  reading 
in  connection  with  each  period,  including  the 
most  popular  historical  fiction. 

GENERAL    HISTORIES 

Knight:  History  of  England  (9  vols.,  very  fully  illus- 
trated, and  excellent  for  reference). 

Green  :  History  of  the  English  People  (the  best  of 
the  general  histories). 

Hume  :  History  of  England  (ends  with  the  abdication 
of  James  II  in  1688.  A  standard  work,  but  not  al- 
ways to  be  depended  upon). 
[169] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Lingard  :  History  of  England  (written  from  the  Catho- 
lic standpoint). 

Guizot:  History  of  France  (6  vols.). 
Menzel  :  History  of  Germany. 

Bayard  Taylor  :  History  of  Germany  (small,  popu- 
lar work). 
Sismondi  :  History  of  the  Italian  Republics. 
Hunt  :  History  of  Italy. 
Fyffe:  History  of  Modern  Europe. 

THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD,    449-1066 

Church  :  The  Story  of  Early  Britain. 

Mrs.  Armitage  :  The  Childhood  of  the  English  Nation. 

Palgrave  :  History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 

Grant  Allen  :  Anglo-Saxon  Britain. 

Besant  :  The  Story  of  Alfred  the  Great  (published  in 

1901,  the  one-thousandth  anniversary  of  Alfred). 
Thierry  :  The  Conquest  of  England  by  the  Normans 

(Bonn's  Library). 
Freeman  :  The  Conquest  of  England  by  the  Normans 

(the  best  special  history  of  this  period). 
Sharon  Turner:  History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  (an 

old  work,  written  in  1799,  but  still  valuable  for 

reference). 

Mrs.  Charles  :  Early  Dawn  (romance  of  the  Roman 

occupation  of  Britain). 
Malory  :  Morte  d' Arthur. 
Bulfinch:  The  Age  of  Chivalry  (legends  of  King 

Arthur). 
Rhys  :  Studies  in  the  Arthurian  Legend. 
[170] 


RELATING  TO   MODERN   HISTORY 

Tennyson  :  Idylls  of  the  King  (poems  based  on  the  old 

Arthurian  legends). 
Bulwer:  Harold,  the  Last  of  the  Saxons  (romance, 

1066). 
Kingsley:   Hereward  the  Wake  (romance,  time  of 

William  the  Conqueror). 
Tennyson :  Harold;  a  Drama  (1066). 

For  Collateral  Reading 

Church  :  The  Beginnings  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

McLaughlin  :  Studies  in  Mediaeval  Life  and  Litera- 
ture. 

Cutts  :  Scenes  and  Characters  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Bradley  :  The  Story  of  the  Goths. 

Hodgkin  :  Theodoric  the  Goth. 

Hallam  :  History  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Bryce  :  The  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

Lecky  :  History  of  European  Morals. 

Burr  :  Charlemagne,  the  Reorganizer  of  Europe. 

Humbert  :  History  of  Charles  the  Great. 

Jewett  :  The  Story  of  the  Normans. 

Lane-Poole  :  The  Moors  in  Spain. 

Clarke  :  The  Cid  Campeador,  and  the  Waning  of  the 
Crescent  in  the  West. 

Carlyle  :  The  Early  Kings  of  Norway  (historical  es- 
say). 

Anderson  :  Norse  Mythology  (for  reference). 

Dasent  :  The  Burnt  Njal  (Norse  romance). 

Lettsom  :  The  Nibelungenlied  (poetical  translation  of 
ancient  German  epic). 

Bulfinch  :  The  Age  of  Charlemagne  (romantic  legends 
retold). 

[171] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

FROM    WILLIAM    THE    CONQUEROR    TO    EDWARD    III, 

1066-1377 
Freeman  :  The  Reign  of  William  Rufus. 
Froude  :  Life  and  Times  of  Thomas  Becket. 
James  :  Life  of  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion. 
Stubhs  :  The  Early  Plantagenets. 
Norgate  :  England  under  the  Angevin  Kings. 
Hull  :  Court  Life  under  the  Plantagenets. 
Pauli  :  Life  of  Simon  de  Montfort  (1215). 
Warburton  :  Edward  III  (1327-1377). 
Jusserand:  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Middle 

Ages. 
Maxwell:  Robert  the  Bruce  and  the  Struggle  for 

Scottish  Independence. 

Scott:  Ivanhoe  (romance,  about  1194). 

James  :  Forest  Days  (romance,  1214). 

Tennyson:  Becket  (drama,  1170). 

Aubrey  de  Vere  :  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  (drama, 

1170). 
Shakespeare  :  King  John  (drama,  1215). 
Davis  :  God  Wills  It  (tale  of  the  first  Crusade). 
Yonge  :  The  Prince  and  the  Page  (story,  1280). 
Jane  Porter  :  The  Scottish  Chiefs  (romantic  story  of 

the  times  of  Bruce — published  in  1810). 
Baring-Gould:  Pabo  the  Priest  (story  of  Wales  in 

time  of  Henry  I). 
Froissart:  Chronicles  (time  of  Edward  III). 
Con  an  Doyle  :  The  White  Company  (romance,  time 

of  Edward  III). 

For  Collateral  Reading 

Cox :  The  Crusades. 

[172] 


RELATING  TO   MODERN   HISTORY 

Michaud  :  History  of  the  Crusades. 
Gray  :  The  Children's  Crusade. 
Archer  and  Kingsford  :  The  Story  of  the  Crusades. 
Mrs.  Oliphant:  Francis  of  Assisi  (1182-1226). 
Mackintosh  :  The  Story  of  Scotland. 
Stead  and  Hug  :  The  Story  of  Switzerland. 
Jamison:  Bertrand  du  Guesclin  (1314-1380). 
Hutton  :  James  and  Philip  Van  Artevelde  (1340-1382). 

Scott  :  The  Talisman  (romance,  time  of  Richard  I)i 

Scott  :  The  Betrothed  (romance  of  the  Crusades). 

Scott  :  Count  Robert  of  Paris  (romance,  eleventh  cen- 
tury). 

James  :  Philip  Augustus  (story  of  the  third  Crusade). 

Hale  :  In  His  Name  (story  of  the  Waldenses). 

Browning  :  Sordello  (poem,  Italy,  thirteenth  century). 

Boker:  Francesca  da  Rimini  (tragedy,  Italy,  thir- 
teenth century). 

Schiller  :  Wilhelm  Tell  (drama  relating  to  the  legen- 
dary hero  of  Switzerland). 

Bulwer  :  Rienzi,  the  Last  of  the  Tribunes  (historical 
novel,  Italy,  fourteenth  century). 

Taylor:  Philip  Van  Artevelde  (drama,  fourteenth 
century). 

Wolff  :  The  Robber  Count  (romance,  Germany,  four- 
teenth century). 

Lockhart  :  Spanish  Ballads. 

Southey  :  Chronicles  of  the  Cid  (legends  of  Moorish 
Spain). 

Irving  :  Alhambra. 

FROM    EDWARD    III    TO    THE    TUDORS,    1377-1485 
Gairdner  :  The  Houses  of  Lancaster  and  York. 
[173] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Edgar  :  The  Wars  of  the  Roses. 

Ramsay  :  Lancaster  and  York.  A  Century  of  English 

History  (1399-1485). 
Kingsford  :  Henry  V  the  Typical  Mediaeval  Hero. 
Ewald:  The  Youth  of  Henry  V  (in  "Stories  from  the 

State  Papers"). 
Sargeant  :  John  Wyclif,  Last  of  the  Schoolmen  and 

First  of  the  English  Reformers. 
Gairdner  :  The  Lollards. 
Gairdner  :  History  of  Richard  III. 
William  Andrews  :  Bygone  England. 

Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  (reflect  life  and  manners 

in  the  fourteenth  century). 
Shakespeare:  King  Richard  II. 
Shakespeare  :  King  Henry  IV. 
Shakespeare  :  King  Henry  V. 
Shakespeare  :  King  Henry  VI. 
Shakespeare:  King  Richard  III. 

(All  historical  dramas.) 
Yonge  :  The  Caged  Lion  (historical  story,  1406). 
Bulwer:  The  Last  of  the  Barons  (romance,  1460). 
Yonge:  Two  Penniless  Princesses  (historical  story, 

Scotland,  1425). 

For  Collateral  Reading 
Duffy  :  The  Story  of  the  Tuscan  Republics. 
Mrs.  Oliphant  :  The  Makers  of  Florence. 
Mrs.  Oliphant  :  The  Makers  of  Venice. 
Villari  :   The  First    Two  Centuries  of   Florentine 

History. 
Clark  :  Savonarola ;  his  Life  and  Times. 
Hazlitt  :  History  of  the  Venetian  Republic. 
[174] 


RELATING   TO   MODERN    HISTORY 

Parr  :  The  Life  and  Death  of  Jeanne  d'Arc. 

Mrs.  Bray  :  Joan  of  Arc  and  the  Times  of  Charles  VII 

of  France. 
Lea  :  History  of  the  Inquisition. 
Symonds  :  The  Renaissance  in  Italy. 
Beazely  :  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator. 
Alberg  :  Gustavus  Vasa  and  his  Stirring  Times. 
John   Foster   Kirk:   History  of  Charles  the   Bold 

(1433-1477). 

Mark  Twain  :  Personal  Recollections  of  Joan  of  Arc 
(historical  romance). 

Browning  :  Luria  (drama,  fifteenth  century). 

Scott  :  Quentin  Durward  (romance,  reign  of  Louis  XI). 

Victor  Hugo  :  Notre  Dame  de  Paris  (romance  of 
Paris,  time  of  Louis  XI). 

Browning:  The  Return  of  the  Druses  (drama,  fif- 
teenth century). 

Scott  :  Anne  of  Geierstein  (romance,  Switzerland,  fif- 
teenth century). 

Ludlow  :  The  Captain  of  the  Janizaries  (romance, 
Turkey,  fifteenth  century). 

Wallace:  The  Prince  of  India;  or  Why  Constanti- 
nople Fell  (romance,  fifteenth  century). 

George  Eliot:  Romola  (historical  novel,  Florence, 
time  of  Savonarola). 

Reade:  The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth  (romance,  fif- 
teenth century). 

FROM    HENRY    VII    TO    JAMES    I,    1485-1603 

Birchall  :  England  under  the  Tudors. 
Froude  :  History  of  England  from  the  Fall  of  Wolsey 
to  the  Death  of  Elizabeth. 

[175] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Geike  :  History  of  the  English  Reformation. 
Friedman:    Anne    Boleyn;   a    Chapter    of   English 

History. 
Creighton  :  The  Age  of  Elizabeth. 
Fox-Bourne  :  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 
Meline  :  Life  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots. 
Lang  :  The  Mystery  of  Marie  Stuart. 
Burke  :  Historic  Portraits  of  the  Tudor  Dynasty. 
Dixon  :  The  Tower  of  London. 

Manning  :  The  Household  of  Sir  Thomas  More  (his- 
torical story,  time  of  Henry  VIII,  purporting  to  be 
the  diary  of  the  daughter  of  Sir  T.  More). 

Muhlhach  :  Henry  VIII  and  Catherine  Parr  (histor- 
ical romance). 

Manning  :  Colloquies  of  Edward  Osborne  (romance, 
1554). 

Ainsworth:  The  Tower  of  London  (historical  ro- 
mance, 1554). 

Scott:  Kenilworth  (historical  novel,  time  of  Queen 
Elizabeth). 

Scott  :  The  Monastery  (novel,  Scotland,  time  of  Mary 
Stuart). 

Scott  :  The  Abbot  (novel,  continuation  of  The  Mon- 
astery). 

Kingsley  :  Westward  Ho !  (novel  of  adventure,  time 
of  Elizabeth). 

Scott:  Marmion  (poetical  romance,  1513). 

Shakespeare:  King  Henry  VIII  (historical  drama). 

Tennyson  :  Queen  Mary  (historical  drama,  1554). 

Aubrey  de  Vere  :  Mary  Tudor  (historical  drama,  1554). 

Scott  :  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  (poetical  romance, 
middle  of  sixteenth  century). 
[176] 


RELATING   TO    MODERN    HISTORY 

Swinburne  :  Chastelard ;  a  Tragedy. 

Swinburne  :  Bothwell's  Tragedy. 

Swinhurne  :  Mary  Stuart ;  a  Tragedy. 

(These  three  dramatic  poems  are  founded  on  the 
history  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots. ) 

Schiller  :  Marie  Stuart  (historical  drama,  1587). 

Landor  :  Elizabeth  and  Burleigh  (in  **  Imaginary  Con- 
versations"). 

For  Collateral  Reading 
Prescott  :  History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
Irving  :  The  Conquest  of  Granada. 
Robertson  :  History  of  Charles  V. 
Pardoe  :  The  Court  and  Reign  of  Francis  I. 
Prescott:  History  of  Philip  II. 
Froude  :  The  Spanish  Story  of  the  Armada. 
Motley  :  The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic. 
Motley  :  History  of  the  United  Netherlands. 
Babrett:  William  the  Silent  (1533-1584). 
Rogers  :  The  Story  of  Holland. 
Willert  :  Henry  of  Navarre. 
Seebohm  :  The  Era  of  the  Protestant  Reformation. 
Fisher  :  History  of  the  Reformation. 
Baird  :  The  Rise  of  the  Huguenots  in  France. 
Baird  :  The  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre. 
Pardoe  :  Life  of  Marie  de  Medicis,  Queen  of  France. 
Lady  Jackson:  The  Court  of  France  in  the  Sixteenth 

Century  (1514-1559). 
Lady  Jackson  :  The  First  of  the  Bourbons  (1589-1595). 
Dyer  :  A  History  of  Modern  Europe,  from  the  Fall  of 

Constantinople  (valuable  for  reference). 

[  177] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Mrs.  Stowe:  Agnes  of  Sorrento  (story,  Italy,  six- 
teenth century). 

Gunsaulus  :  Monk  and  Knight. 

Runkle:  The  Helmet  of  Navarre  (novel,  time  of 
Henry  IV). 

Mrs.  Charles:  Chronicles  of  the  Schonberg-Cotta 
Family  (time  of  Luther,  sixteenth  century). 

Lyof  Tolstoi  :  The  Terrible  Czar  (story  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible,  1530-1584). 

Trollope  :  Paul  the  Pope  and  Paul  the  Friar. 

Goethe  :  Egmont  (historical  drama,  1568). 

Goethe  :  Torquato  Tasso  (historical  drama,  1590). 


JAMES    I    TO    GEORGE    I,    1603-1714 

Gardiner:  History  of  England  from  the  Accession 
of  James  I  to  the  Disgrace  of  Chief  Justice  Coke. 

Gardiner:  The  Personal  Government  of  Charles  I. 

Gardiner  :  History  of  the  Great  Civil  War. 

Carlyle  :  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell. 

Guizot  :  History  of  the  Revolution  in  England. 

Guizot  :  History  of  England  under  Cromwell. 

Goldwin  Smith:  Three  English  Statesmen  (Pym, 
Cromwell,  Pitt). 

Morley  :  Oliver  Cromwell. 

Roosevelt  :  Oliver  Cromwell. 

Masson  :  Life  and  Times  of  John  Milton. 

Birchall  :  England  under  the  Stuarts. 

Adams:  The  Merry  Monarch  (Charles  II). 

Macaulay  :  History  of  England  (1685-1702). 

Hale  :  The  Fall  of  the  Stuarts. 

Morris  :  The  Age  of  Anne. 

[178] 


RELATING   TO   MODERN   HISTORY 

Adams  :  Good  Queen  Anne. 

Ashtok  :  Social  Life  in  the  Reign  of  Queen  Anne. 

Mrs.  Oliphant  :  The  Reign  of  Queen  Anne. 

Ains worth  :  Guy  Fawkes  (historical  tale,  1605). 
Ains worth  :  The  Spanish  Match  (1620). 
Scott  :  The  Fortunes  of  Nigel  (historical  novel,  time 
of  James  I). 

Scott:  Legend  of  Montrose  (1646). 

Quiller-Couch  :  The  Splendid  Spur  (historical  tale, 

time  of  Charles  I). 
Shorthouse  :  John  Inglesant  (historical  romance,  time 

of  Charles  I). 
Scott:  Woodstock  (historical  novel,  1651). 
Butler:   Hudibras  (humorous  poem  relating  to  the 

times  of  the  Puritans). 
Edna  Lyall:  To  Right  the  Wrong  (story  of  John 

Hampden  and  the  Civil  War). 
Conan  Doyle  :  Micah  Clarke  (historical  tale,  1685). 
Defoe  :  History  of  the  Great  Plague  in  London  (fic- 
titious narrative,  1665). 
Scott:  Old  Mortality  (romance,  Scotland,  1679). 
Thackeray  :  Henry  Esmond  (historical  novel,  time  of 

Queen  Anne). 
Blackmore:  Lorna  Doone;  a  Romance  of  Exmoor 

(early  in  the  seventeenth  century). 

For  Collateral  Reading 
Schiller  :  History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  (1618- 

1648). 
Robson:  Life  of  Cardinal  Richelieu  (1585-1642). 
G.  Masson  :  Richelieu. 

[179] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Fletcher  :  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  the  Struggle  of 

Protestantism  for  Existence  (1594-1632). 
Motley  :  Life  and  Death  of  John  of  Barneveldt. 
Pardoe  :  Louis  XIV  and  the  Court  of  France. 
Hassall  :  Louis  XIV,  and  the  Zenith  of  the  French 

Monarchy  (1643-1715). 
Baird:  The  Huguenots  and  the  Revocation  of  the 

Edict  of  Nantes. 
Schuyler  :  History  of  Peter  the  Great  (1689-1725). 
Bain  :  Charles  XII,  and  the  Collapse  of  the  Swedish 

Empire  (1682-1719). 
Lady  Jackson:  The  Old   Regime  (Louis  XIV  and 

Louis  XV). 
Mahon  :  The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession. 

De  Vigny:  Cinq-Mars  (historical  romance,  time  of 
Louis  XIII). 

Topelius  :  Times  of  Gustaf  Adolf  (historical  romance, 
Sweden). 

Manzoni  :  The  Betrothed  (Italian  story,  1628). 

Bulwer  :  Richelieu  (historical  drama). 

Weyman:  A  Gentleman  of  France  (historical  tale, 
Huguenots). 

Weyman  :  The  House  of  the  Wolf  (historical  tale,  mas- 
sacre of  St.  Bartholomew). 

Conan  Doyle:  The  Refugees  (story  of  France  and 
America,  time  of  Huguenots). 

Sienkiewicz  :  With  Fire  and  Sword. 

Sienkiewicz  :  The  Deluge. 

Sienkiewicz  :  Pan  Michael. 
(The  last  three  form  a  connected  historical  romance  of 
Poland  in  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century. ) 
[180] 


RELATING   TO   MODERN   HISTORY 

Topelius:  Times  of  Battle  and   Rest  (historical  ro- 
mance, Sweden). 
Topelius  :  Times  of  Charles  XII  (historical  romance). 

GEORGE    I    TO    VICTORIA,    1714-1836 

Lecky:  A  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century. 

Morris  :  The  Early  Hanoverians. 

Thackeray  :  Lectures  on  the  Four  Georges. 

Stephex:  History  of  English  Thought  in  the  Eigh- 
teenth Century. 

Macaulay  :  Essays  on  Lord  Clive  and  Lord  Chatham. 

Froude:  The  English  in  Ireland  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century. 

Macaulay  :  Essays  on  Warren  Hastings,  William  Pitt, 
and  Barere. 

Trevelyan  :  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox. 

Wade  :  Letters  of  Junius. 

Morley  :  Edmund  Burke,  a  Historical  Sketch. 

Ashton  :  The  Dawn  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

M  ah  ax  :  Life  of  Nelson. 

W.  Clark  Russell  :  Nelson  and  the  Naval  Supremacy 
of  England. 

Lounsbury  :  English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury. 

Scott:  Rob  Roy  (novel,  Scotland,  1715). 
Scott:  The  Heart  of  Midlothian  (novel,  1734). 
Scott:  Waverley  (novel,  Scotland,  1745). 
Goldsmith  :  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield. 
Edgeworth  :  Castle  Rackrent  (story  of  Ireland). 
Mitford  :  Our  Village  (depicting  English  country  life 
a  hundred  years  ago). 

[181] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Mrs.  Charles  :  Diary  of  Kitty  Trevylyan  (story,  times 
of  John  Wesley). 

Dickens:  Barnaby  Rudge  (novel,  time  of  the  "No 
Popery"  riots,  1780). 

George  Eliot  :  Adam  Bede. 

Thackeray  :  Vanity  Fair. 

Kingsley  :  Alton  Locke. 
(These  three  are  deservedly  famous  novels  depict- 
ing phases  of  English  life  and  manners  during  the 
earlier  part  of  last  century.) 

Lever  :  Charles  O'Malley  (novel,  Irish  life). 

For  Collateral  Reading 
Taine  :  The  Ancient  Regime. 
Michelet  :  History  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Thiers  :  History  of  the  French  Revolution. 
McCarthy  :  History  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Carlyle  :  The  French  Revolution ;  a  History. 
Alison:  History  of  Europe  (1789-1815). 
Sloane  :  Life  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte. 
Dumas:  Napoleon. 
Lady  Jackson:  The  French  Court  and  Society  (1774- 

1815). 
Campan  :  The  Private  Life  of  Marie  Antoinette. 
Saint-Amand  :  Marie  Antoinette. 
Saint- Amand  :  Empress  Josephine. 
Saint-Amand  :  Empress  Marie  Louise. 
Tarbell  :  Life  of  Madame  Roland. 
Ropes  :  The  Campaign  of  Waterloo. 
Ropes  :  The  First  Napoleon. 
Seeley  :  Life  and  Times  of  Stein ;  or  Germany  and 

Prussia  in  the  Napoleonic  Age. 
[182] 


RELATING   TO   MODERN    HISTORY 

Lady  Jackson  :  The  Court  of  the  Tuileries  (1815-1830). 
Brigham  :  The  Bastille. 

Dickens  :  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities  (novel,  time  of  the 

French  Revolution). 
Erckmann-Chatrian  :  Year  One  of  the  Republic. 
Erckmann-Chatrian  :  The  Conscript ;  the  Invasion  of 

France  in  1814;  and  Waterloo. 
Black  more  :  Alice  Lorraine. 
Troixope  :  La  Vendee. 
Saintine:  Picciola. 

(All  these  are  works  of  fiction  relating  to  the  period 

of  the  French  Revolution  and  the  first  Napoleon.) 
Victor  Hugo  :  Les  Miserables. 

THE    VICTORIAN    AGE,    1835-1900 

McCarthy  :  History  of  Our  Own  Times. 

Mrs.  Latimer:  England  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

Ward  :  The  Reign  of  Queen  Victoria. 

G.  Barnett  Smith:  The  Prime  Ministers  of  Queen 

Victoria. 
McCarthy  :  Sir  Robert  Peel. 
Froude  :  The  Earl  of  Beaconsfield. 
Russell:  The  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone. 
Besant  :  Fifty  Years  Ago. 
Marquis  of  Lorne:  V.  R.  I.  Queen  Victoria,  her  Life 

and  Empire. 
Clayden:  England  under  the  Coalition  (1885-1892). 

For  Collateral  Reading 
Guizot  :  France  under  Louis  Philippe. 
Kinglake  :  The  Invasion  of  the  Crimea. 
[183] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Victor  Hugo  :  The  History  of  a  Crime  (accession  of 

Louis  Napoleon). 
Forbes  :  The  Franco-German  War. 
Moltke:  The  Franco-German  War  of  1870-71. 
Von  Sybel  :  The  Founding  of  the  German  Empire. 
Mrs.  Latimer  :  Spain  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (also 

uniform  works  by  the  same  author  on  Italy,  France, 

Russia  and  Turkey,  and  Europe  and  Africa). 
Mrs.  Latimer:  The  Last  Years  of  the  Nineteenth 

Century. 

FOR    YOUNG    READERS 

Kirkland:  A  Short  History  of  England  for  Young 
People. 

Dickens  :  A  Child's  History  of  England  (very  enter- 
taining but  not  always  trustworthy). 

Abbott  :  History  of  Alfred  the  Great. 

Abbott  :  History  of  William  the  Conqueror. 

Abbott:  History  of  Richard  I. 

Abbott  :  History  of  Richard  II. 

Abbott  :  History  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

Abbott  :  History  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots. 

Abbott  :  History  of  Charles  I. 

Abbott:  History  of  Charles  II. 
(Biographical  histories  not  yet  replaced  by  works 
of  higher  merit.) 

Lanier  :  The  Boys'  King  Arthur. 
Lanier  :  Knightly  Legends  of  Wales. 
Pyle  :  The  Story  of  Robin  Hood. 
Leighton  :  The  Thirsty  Sword.  A  Story  of  the  Norse 
Invasion  of  Scotland  (1262-63). 
[184] 


RELATING   TO   MODERN   HISTORY 

Henty  :  In  Freedom's  Cause.  A  Story  of  Wallace  and 
Bruce. 

Jake  Porter  :  The  Scottish  Chiefs  (story  of  the  times 
of  Bruce). 

Muddock  :  Maid  Marion  and  Robin  Hood. 

Giixiat  :  God  Save  King  Alfred ! 

Tappan  :  In  the  Days  of  William  the  Conqueror. 

Hyde  :  Hollyberry  and  Mistletoe  (story  of  the  time  of 
Henry  VII). 

Armstrong:  My  Friend  Anne,  a  Story  of  the  Six- 
teenth Century  (time  of  Henry  VIII). 

Lanier  :  The  Boys'  Froissart. 

Scott:  Tales  of  a  Grandfather  (historical  stories  of 
Scotland). 

Mark  Twain:  The  Prince  and  the  Pauper  (fanciful 
story  of  the  time  of  Henry  VIII). 

Henty  :  With  Clive  in  India. 

Brereton  :  A  Gallant  Grenadier ;  a  Tale  of  the  Cri- 
mean War. 

For  Collateral  Reading — Continental  Countries 
Kirkland:  A  Short  History  of  France  for  Young 

People. 
Ahhott  :  History  of  Henry  IV. 
Abbott  :  History  of  Louis  XIV. 
Bonner  :  A  Child's  History  of  France. 
Bonner  :  A  Child's  History  of  Spain. 

Brooks  :  In  Chivalric  Days  and  Youthful  Deeds. 
Brooks:  Historic  Boys. 
Brooks  :  Historic  Girls. 
Brooks  :  A  Boy  of  the  First  Empire. 
Baldwin  :  The  Story  of  Roland  (times  of  Charlemagne). 
[185] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

II.   THE  UNITED  STATES 
History  is  the  chart  and  compass  for  national  en- 
deavor. Sir  Arthur  Helps 

GENERAL    HISTORIES    AND    BOOKS    FOR    REFERENCE 

Larked  :  History  for  Ready  Reference  (excellent  also 
for  general  history.  Indispensable  for  the  historical 
student). 

Henry  Adams  :  History  of  the  United  States  (5  vols.). 

Schouler:  History  of  the  United  States  under  the 
Constitution  (6  vols.). 

Justin  Winsor:  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 
America  (8  vols.). 

Bancroft:  History  of  the  United  States  (12  vols., 
from  the  discovery  of  America  to  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution). 

Hildreth  :  History  of  the  United  States  (6  vols.,  from 
the  discovery  of  America  to  1820). 

Bryant  and  Gay  :  History  of  the  United  States  (from 
the  discovery  to  1880.  A  popular  history  in  four  vol- 
umes, fully  illustrated). 

Thorpe:  Constitutional  History  of  the  American 
People. 

E.  B.  Andrews  :  History  of  the  United  States. 

A.  B.  Hart:  American  History  told  by  Contempo- 
raries (4  vols.). 

A.  B.  Hart  :  Epochs  of  American  History  (3  vols. ). 

ABORIGINAL    AMERICA 

Baldwin  :  Ancient  America. 

Biart:  The  Aztecs — their  History,  Manners,  etc. 

[    186    J; 


RELATING  TO   MODERN   HISTORY 

Foster  :  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States. 

Ellis  :  The  Red  Man  and  the  White  Man. 

H.  H.  Bancroft  :  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States 

(a  monumental  work  in  40  volumes;  valuable  for 

reference). 
Charkay  :  The  Ancient  Cities  of  the  New  World. 

THE    PERIOD    OF    THE    DISCOVERY 

Fiske  :  The  Discovery  of  America. 

Irving  :  Columbus  and  his  Companions. 

Winsor  :  Christopher  Columbus. 

Prescott  :  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico. 

Prescott  :  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru. 

Helps  :  The  Spanish  Conquest  of  America. 

Wallace:  The  Fair  God,  or  the  Last  of  the  Tzins 
(romantic  story  of  the  conquest  of  Mexico). 

Mrs.  Catherwood  :  The  Lady  of  Fort  St.  John  (ro- 
mance of  French  discovery  and  colonization). 

Hale  :  Stories  of  Discovery  (short  true  stories). 

Grace  King:  De  Soto  and  his  Men  in  the  Land  of 
Florida. 

THE    COLONIAL    PERIOD 

Fiske  :  Old  Virgina  and  her  Neighbors. 

Fiske  :  The  Beginnings  of  New  England. 

Eggleston  :  The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 

Palfrey  :  History  of  New  England. 

Wharton  :  Colonial  Days  and  Dames. 

Wharton  :  Through  Colonial  Doorways. 

Earle  :  Customs  and  Fashions  in  Old  New  England. 

Earle  :  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days. 

Earle  :  Child  Life  in  Colonial  Days. 

[187] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Spofford  :  New  England  Legends. 

Coffin  :  Old  Times  in  the  Colonies. 

Brady  :  Colonial  Fights  and  Fighters. 

Eggleston  :  The  Transit  of  Civilization. 

Wood  :  The  Story  of  John  Smith. 

Thomas  Nelson  Page  :  Social  Life  in  Old  Virginia. 

Halsey  :  The  Old  New  York  Frontier. 

Mrs.  Lamr  :  History  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

James  Grant  Wilson  :  Memorial  History  of  New  York. 

Dixon  :  History  of  William  Penn. 

Parkman  :  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World. 

Parkman  :  The  Jesuits  in  North  America. 

Parkman  :  La  Salle  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great 

West. 
Parkman  :  The  Old  Regime  in  Canada. 
Parkman  :  Count  Frontenac  and  New  France  under 

Louis  XIV. 
Parkman  :  A  Half  Century  of  Conflict. 
Parkman  :  Montcalm  and  Wolfe. 
Parkman  :  The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac  and  the  Indian 

War  after  the  Conquest  of  Canada. 
Shea  :  Discovery  and  Exploration  of  the  Mississippi 

(translation  of  early  French  narratives). 
Baldwin  :  The  Discovery  of  the  Old  Northwest 

Mrs.  Austin  :  Standish  of  Standish. 

Mrs.  Austin  :  David  Alden's  Daughter;  Other  Stories 

of  Colonial  Times. 
Bynner:  Zachary  Phips. 
Bynner  :  Agnes  Surriage. 

(Stories  of  colonial  New  England.) 
Bynner:  The  Begum's  Daughter  (a  story  of  Dutch 

New  York). 

[188] 


RELATING   TO   MODERN   HISTORY 

Johnson  :  Prisoners  of  Hope  (story  of  early  colonial 
life  in  Virginia). 

Stimson  :  King  Noanett  (story  of  colonial  Virginia  and 
New  England). 

Taylor  :  Anne  Scarlett  (story  of  colonial  Massachu- 
setts). 

Longfellow  :  The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish  (poem). 

Irving  :  Knickerbocker's  History  of  New  York. 

Hawthorne  :  The  Scarlet  Letter. 

Du  Bois :  Martha  Corey;  a  Tale  of  Salem  Witchcraft. 

Stockton  :  Buccaneers  and  Pirates  of  our  Coast. 

Simms:  The  Yemassee  (story  of  South  Carolina,  1715). 

Cooper  :  The  Pathfinder. 

Cooper  :  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans. 

Thackeray  :  The  Virginians  (time  of  Washington). 

Catherwood  :  The  Story  of  Tonty. 

Catherwood:  Lazarre. 
(Stories  of  old  French  times.) 

Kirby  :  The  Golden  Dog  (historical  romance,  Canada 
in  time  of  the  intendant  Bigot). 

Gilbert  Parker  :  The  Seats  of  the  Mighty  (historical 
romance,  time  of  the  conquest  of  Canada). 

THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Fiske  :  The  American  Revolution. 
Lodge  :  The  Story  of  the  Revolution. 
Tomlinson  :  Short  History  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion. 
Lossing  :  Field  Book  of  the  Revolution. 
Greene  :  Historical  View  of  the  American  Revolution. 
Tyler  :  Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolution. 
Lodge:  George  Washington. 
[189] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Paul  Leicester  Ford  :  The  True  George  Washington. 

Hapgood  :  George  Washington. 

Irving  :  Life  of  George  Washington  (in  some  respects 

antiquated,  and  yet  of  much  value). 
Morse:  Benjamin  Franklin. 

Paul  Leicester  Ford  :  The  Many-sided  Franklin. 
Tyler  :  Patrick  Henry. 
Hosmer  :  Samuel  Adams. 
Dwight  :  Lives  of  the  Signers. 

Cooper  :  The  Spy  (tale,  time  of  the  Revolution). 

Cooper  :  The  Pilot  (sea  tale,  exploits  of  Paul  Jones). 

Paul  Leicester  Ford  :  Janice  Meredith  (novel,  New 
Jersey  and  New  York  in  the  Revolution). 

Mitchell  :  Hugh  Wynne ;  Free  Quaker  (novel,  Phila- 
delphia in  the  Revolution). 

Churchill:  Richard  Carvel  (novel,  introducing  ex- 
ploits of  Paul  Jones). 
(The  list  of  fiction  might  be  extended  indefinitely.) 

Longfellow  :  Paul  Revere's  Ride  (poem). 

Holmes:  Dorothy  Q.,  and  Grandmother's  Story  of 
Bunker  Hill  Battle  (poem). 

FROM    THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

McMaster  :  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States 
from  the  Revolution  to  the  Civil  War  (very  valuable 
for  reference  or  reading.  To  be  completed  in  six 
volumes). 

Frothingham  :  Rise  of  the  Republic  in  the  United 
States. 

Schouler:  History  of  the  United  States  under  the 
Constitution. 

[190] 


RELATING   TO    MODERN    HISTORY 

Thorpe  :  Constitutional  History  of  the  American  Peo- 
ple. 1776-1850  (2  vols.). 

Von  Holst:  Constitutional  History  of  the  United 
States. 

Bryce  :  The  American  Commonwealth. 

Carnegie  :  Triumphant  Democracy. 

Morse  :  John  Adams. 
Morse  :  Thomas  Jefferson. 
Pellew  :  John  Jay. 
Adams  :  John  Randolph. 
Lodge  :  Alexander  Hamilton. 
Magruder  :  John  Marshall. 
Gay  :  James  Madison. 
Gilman:  James  Monroe. 
Morse  :  John  Quincy  Adams. 
Sumner  :  Andrew  Jackson. 
Roosevelt  :  Thomas  H.  Benton. 
Von  Holst  :  John  C.  Calhoun. 
Lodge  :  Daniel  Webster. 
Schurz  :  Henry  Clay. 

(Also  other  volumes  of  the  American  Statesmen 

Series.) 

Parton  :  Life  of  Aaron  Burr. 

Curtis  :  The  True  Thomas  Jefferson. 

Coues  (editor) :  Journal  of  Lewis  and  Clark  (explora- 
tions west  of  the  Mississippi). 

Spears  :  The  History  of  our  Navy. 

Mahan:  The  Influence  of  Sea-Power  upon  History 
(not  relating  exclusively  to  American  history,  but  of 
general  interest). 

Roosevelt:  The  Winning  of  the  West  (3  vols.). 
[191] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Woodrow  Wilson  :  Division  and  Reunion  (1829-1889). 

Ripley  :  The  War  with  Mexico. 

Kendall  :  The  Santa  Fe  Expedition. 

Rhodes  :  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Cora- 
promise  of  1850  (4  vols.). 

Thayer  :  The  Kansas  Crusade. 

Robinson  :  The  Kansas  Conflict. 

The  Century  War  Book  :  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the 
Civil  War. 

Jefferson  Davis  :  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confed- 
erate Government. 

Alex.  H.  Stephens:  Constitutional  History  of  the 
War  between  the  States  (Southern  view). 

Ropes  :  The  Story  of  the  Civil  War. 

Draper  :  History  of  the  American  Civil  War. 

Arnold  :  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Nicolay  and  Hay  :  Abraham  Lincoln ;  A  History  (the 
most  complete  biography  published). 

Swinton  :  Twelve  Decisive  Battles  of  the  War. 

Church:  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  and  the  Period  of  Na- 
tional Preservation  and  Reconstruction. 

White  :  Robert  E.  Lee,  and  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

King  :  The  Great  South. 

Schwab  :  The  Confederate  States  of  America. 

Garrison  :  Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 

Carpenter:  Six  Months  at  the  White  House. 

Williams  :  History  of  the  Negro  Race. 

Douglass  :  Life  and  Times  of  Frederick  Douglass. 

Booker  T.  Washington  :  Up  from  Slavery. 

Spears  :  A  History  of  the  American  Slave  Trade. 

Wilson  :  History  of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave 

Power  in  America.     ' 

[192] 


RELATING  TO   MODERN   HISTORY 

Lester  :  Our  First  Hundred  Years. 

Helen  Hunt  Jackson  :  A  Century  of  Dishonor. 

Lossing  :  The  American  Centenary. 

Lodge  :  The  War  with  Spain. 

Alger  :  The  Spanish- American  War. 

Hill  :  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico. 

Robinson  :  The  Philippines. 

Alexander  :  Brief  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People. 

See  also  the  "Great  Commanders  Series"  (10  vols., 
edited  by  General  James  Grant  Wilson) ;  "The  Makers 
of  America"  (12  vols.);  Sparks's  "American  Biog- 
raphy" (10  vols.);  "American  Commonwealths"  (10 
vols.,  edited  by  Horace  E.  Scudder);  and  "Epochs  of 
American  History"  (ed.  by  Albert  Bushnell  Hart). 

FOR    YOUNG    READERS 

Abbott  :  The  Discovery  of  America. 

Abbott  :  Hernando  Cortez. 

Mackie  :  With  the  Admiral  of  the  Ocean  Sea. 

Towle:  Vasco  da  Gama,  Pizarro,  Magellan,  Drake, 

Sir  Walter  Ralegh  (5  vols.). 
Butterworth  :  The  Story  of  Magellan. 
Eggleston:  Pocahontas. 
Cooke  :  Stories  of  the  Old  Dominion. 
Hemstreet  :  The  Story  of  Manhattan. 
Coffin  :  The  Boys  of  '76. 
Coffin  :  Old  Times  in  the  Colonies. 
Coffin  :  Building  of  the  Nation. 
Noah  Brooks:  First  Across  the  Continent  (story  of 

the  exploring  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  1803- 

1805). 

[193] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Brooks  :  The  Story  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

Coffin:  The  Boys  of  '61. 

Coffin  :  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Seawell  :  Paul  Jones. 

Sea  well  :  Decatur  and  Somers. 

Drake  :  The  Making  of  the  Great  West. 

Drake  :  The  Making  of  New  England. 

Drake  :  The  Making  of  Virginia. 

Drake  :  The  Making  of  the  Ohio  Valley  States. 

Brooks  :  Century  Book  for  Young  Americans. 

Butterworth  :  The  Boyhood  of  Lincoln. 

Anon.  :  Colonial  Books  for  Children  (3  vols.). 

Champlin  :  Young  Folks'  History  of  the  War  for  the 
Union. 

Baldwin  :  Four  Great  Americans  (Washington,  Frank- 
lin, Webster,  Lincoln). 

Burton:  Four  American  Patriots  (Patrick  Henry, 
Hamilton,  Jackson,  Grant). 

Perry:  Four  American  Pioneers  (George  Rogers 
Clark,  Boone,  Crockett,  Kit  Carson). 

Eggleston  :  Stories  of  Great  Americans. 

Eggleston  :  Stories  of  American  Life  and  Adventure. 

Roosevelt  :  Hero  Tales  from  American  History. 

Page  :  Two  Little  Confederates  (story  of  the  South). 


[194] 


GEOGRAPHY   AND   TRAVELS 


How  highly  must  we  estimate  the  wondrous  power 
of  books,  since  through  them  we  survey  the  utmost 
bounds  of  the  world  and  time,  and  contemplate  the 
things  that  are  as  well  as  those  that  are  not,  as  it  were 
in  the  mirrors  of  eternity. 

Richard  de  Bury 


CHAPTER  IX 

GEOGRAPHY    AND    TRAVELS 

GEOGRAPHY  is  learned  best  by  the  care- 
ful reading  of  books  of  travel.  The  text- 
books that  are  studied  at  school  can  give  but 
a  meagre  outline  of  the  subject.  Through  them 
we  fix  in  our  minds  a  few  general  terms,  we 
learn  something  about  the  structure  of  the  earth 
as  a  whole,  we  ascertain  the  relative  posi- 
tions of  countries  and  seas,  of  rivers  and  moun- 
tains, of  roads  and  cities,  and  possibly  we  may 
get  some  feeble  notion  of  the  races  of  man- 
kind and  of  the  conditions  of  life  in  certain  por- 
tions of  the  habitable  globe.  But  it  is  by  the 
reading  of  books  of  travel,  description,  and  ad- 
venture that  we  get  at  the  very  kernel  of  the 
matter.  Through  them  we  become  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  people,  the  scenery,  the 
industries  of  foreign  lands.  The  most  desultory 
study  of  books  of  this  class  can  scarcely  fail  to 
enrich  the  mind  with  profitable  knowledge. 
[197] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
Considered  from  a  practical  standpoint  they 
are  not  to  be  classed  with  books  of  power, 
they  are  rather  the  books  of  the  workshop. 
Every  school  library  should  contain  many  of 
them;  and  pupils  should  be  taught  how  to  use 
them  to  supplement  the  instruction  which  they 
receive  from  the  text-books. 

There  is,  however,  another  and  pleasanter, 
although  it  may  be  less  practical,  way  of  re- 
garding these  books.  They  enable  the  poorest 
of  us  to  become  travellers,  to  see  the  world. 
Sitting  at  mine  ease  in  my  library,  I  visit  for- 
eign lands;  I  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  the  tourist 
without  suffering  his  discomforts.  I  climb  the 
Alps  without  fatigue,  I  walk  the  streets  of  the 
Eternal  City,  I  journey  with  contentment  across 
the  African  desert,  I  sit  within  the  shadow  of 
the  Pyramids,  I  sail  among  the  spicy  islands 
of  the  East,  I  circumnavigate  the  globe,  and  am 
at  home  again  without  weariness  and  with  as 
full  a  purse  as  when  I  started.  I  have  adven- 
tures, too,  in  the  same  pleasant  and  inexpensive 
manner.  I  hunt  tigers  in  India,  I  go  whaling  in 
[198] 


GEOGRAPHY  AND  TRAVELS 
the  South  Sea  or  sail  among  the  ice  floes  of 
the  polar  regions,  I  have  encounters  with  wild 
tribes  in  the  Soudan,  I  am  captured  by  canni- 
bals and  escape  unharmed.  Of  all  modes  of 
travel  what  can  be  more  delightful,  more  satis- 
fying, more  safe  in  every  way  than  travel  in 
one's  own  library? 

Good  old  Richard  de  Bury,  even  with  his 
limited  opportunities,  had  an  inkling  of  this. 
"In  books,"  he  says,  "we  climb  mountains  and 
scan  the  deepest  gulfs  of  the  abyss ;  in  books  we 
behold  the  finny  tribes  that  may  not  exist  out- 
side their  native  waters,  distinguish  the  prop- 
erties of  streams  and  springs  and  of  various 
lands;  from  books  we  dig  out  gems  and  metals 
and  the  materials  of  every  kind  of  mineral,  and 
learn  the  virtues  of  herbs  and  trees  and  plants, 
and  survey  at  will  the  whole  progeny  of  Nep- 
tune, Ceres,  and  Pluto. 

"And  if  we  please  to  visit  the  heavenly  in- 
habitants, Taurus,  Caucasus,  and  Olympus  are 
at  hand,  from  which  we  pass  beyond  the  realms 
of  Juno  and  mark  out  the  territories  of  the 
[199] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
seven  planets  by  lines  and  circles.  Then  we  in- 
spect the  antarctic  pole  which  eye  hath  not 
seen  nor  ear  heard;  we  admire  the  luminous 
Milky  Way  and  the  Zodiac,  marvellously  and 
delightfully  pictured  with  celestial  animals. 
Thence  by  books  we  pass  on  to  separate  sub- 
stances, that  the  intellect  may  greet  kindred 
intelligences,  and  with  the  mind's  eye  may 
discern  the  First  Cause  of  all  things  and  the 
Unmoved  Mover  of  infinite  virtue,  and  may 
immerse  itself  in  love  without  end.  See  how  with 
the  aid  of  books  we  attain  the  reward  of  our  beati- 
tude, while  we  are  yet  sojourners  below." 

The  following  lists  contain  the  titles  of  many 
popular  works  of  travel  and  description.  Not 
all  these  works  are  equally  good ;  and  yet  every 
one  has  some  feature  to  commend  it.  All  are 
available  for  instruction  or  for  pleasure,  for  the 
student  or  for  the  fireside  traveller. 

GENERAL  WORKS 
Curtis  :  Dottings  round  the  Circle. 
Prime  :  Around  the  World. 
Edwin  Arnold:  Seas  and  Lands. 
Barrows  :  A  World  Pilgrimage. 
[  200  ] 


GEOGRAPHY   AND   TRAVELS 

Pumpelly  :  Across  America  and  Asia.  ' 
Ainsworth  :  All  Round  the  World. 
Price  :  From  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Yellow  Sea. 
Brehm:   From   North   Pole  to  Equator:   Studies  of 

Wild  Life  and  Scenes  in  Many  Lands. 
Mark  Twain  :  Following  the  Equator. 

BOOKS  OF  THE  SEA 
S  Figuier  :  The  Ocean  World. 

Bullen:  The  Cruise  of  the  "Cachalot"  (whaling  ad- 
ventures). 

Bullen  :  The  Log  of  a  Sea  Waif. 

Bullen  :  Idylls  of  the  Sea. 
^-Dana  :  Two  Years  before  the  Mast  (a  classic  of  the  sea). 

Erskine  :  Twenty  Years  before  the  Mast ;  with  Scenes 
and  Incidents  while  circumnavigating  the  Globe. 

Hamhlen  :  On  Many  Seas ;  the  Life  and  Exploits  of  a 
Yankee  Sailor. 

Ireland  :  The  Green  Mariner  (a  landsman's  account 
of  a  deep-sea  voyage). 

Lady  Brassey  :  In  the  Trades,  the  Tropics,  and  the 
"Roaring  Forties." 

Low :  Tales  of  Old  Ocean. 

Pinto  :  Voyages  and  Adventures. 

Stevenson  :  By  Way  of  Cape  Horn  (four  months  in  a 
Yankee  clipper). 

Cook's  Voyages  (an  old  work,  but  always  interesting). 

Lady  Brassey  :  Around  the  World  in  the  Yacht  "  Sun- 
beam." 

Lady  Belcher  :  The  Mutineers  of  the  Bounty. 

W.  Clark  Russell  :  The  Wreck  of  the  Grosvenor. 

Michael  Scott  :  The  Cruise  of  the  Midge  (sea  story). 
[201  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

THE  ARCTIC  REGIONS 

Nansen  :  Farthest  North.  The  Record  of  a  Voyage  of 
Exploration  of  the  Ship  "Fram"  (1893-1896). 

Peary  :  Northward  over  the  Great  Ice. 

Peary  :  My  Arctic  Journal. 

Du  Chaillu  :  The  Land  of  the  Long  Night. 

Nourse  :  American  Explorations  in  the  Ice  Zones. 

Hayes  :  The  Land  of  Desolation. 

Blake  :  Arctic  Experiences. 

Greely  :  Three  Years  of  Arctic  Service. 

John  Burroughs  and  Others:  Alaska;  its  Natives, 
Bird  and  Animal  Life,  Trees  and  Flowers,  and 
Resources  (an  important  work). 

Ballou  :  The  New  Eldorado  (Alaska). 

Schwatka  :  Along  Alaska's  Great  River. 

Elliott  :  Our  Arctic  Province,  Alaska. 

NORTH  AMERICA 

Robinson  :  The  Great  Fur  Land. 
Butler  :  The  Great  Lone  Land. 
Butler  :  The  Wild  North  Land. 
Van  Dyke  :  Little  Rivers  (sketches  of  fishing  tours 

and  vacation  journeys,  some  in  Canada). 
Ralph  :  On  Canada's  Frontier. 

Clifton  Johnson  :  The  New  England  Country. 

Bolles  :  The  Land  of  the  Lingering  Snow. 

Drake:   Nooks  and  Corners  of  the  New  England 

Coast. 
Flagg  :  The  Woods  and  By- Ways  of  New  England. 
Prime  :  Along  New  England  Roads. 
[  202  ] 


GEOGRAPHY   AND   TRAVELS 

Thoreau  :  The  Maine  Woods. 

Thoreau:  A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimack 

Rivers. 
Thoreau  :  Excursions  in  Field  and  Forest. 
Thoreau:  Autumn. 
Keyser  :  In  Bird  Land. 

Warner  :  The  Adirondacks  Verified. 

Bromfield  :  Picturesque  Journeys  in  America. 

Appleton  :  Picturesque  America. 

Appleton  :  Our  Native  Land. 

Twain  and  Others  :  The  Niagara  Book. 

Fox :  Bluegrass  and  Rhododendron  (Kentucky). 

King  :  The  Great  South. 

Pollard  :  The  Virginia  Tourist. 

Porte  Crayon:  Virginia  Illustrated  (middle  of  last 

century). 
Twain  :  Life  on  the  Mississippi. 
Lanier  :  Florida ;  its  Scenery. 

Coues  (editor) :  Lewis  and  Clark's  Journal  of  an  Ex- 
pedition across  the  Rocky  Mountains  (1804). 

Irving  :  A  Tour  on  the  Prairies  (Western  scenes,  early 
part  of  last  century). 

Meline  :  Two  Thousand  Miles  on  Horseback. 

Browne  :  Crusoe's  Island. 

Nordhoff:  Northern  California. 

Taylor  :  Eldorado  (California  fifty  years  ago). 

Charles  Dudley  Warner  :  Our  Italy  (California). 

Clarence  King  :  Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

Bowles  :  Across  the  Continent  (1865). 

Stevenson  :  The  Amateur  Emigrant. 

Bourke  :  On  the  Border  with  Crook. 
[  203  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Lummis  :  A  Tramp  across  the  Continent. 

Bird  :  A  Lady's  Life  in  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Stoddard  :  Beyond  the  Rockies. 

Mrs.  Custer  :  Boots  and  Saddles. 

Mrs.  Custer:  Following  the  Guidon. 

Mrs.  Custer  :  Tenting  on  the  Plains. 

Browne  :  The  Apache  Country. 

Muir:  Our  National  Parks. 

Lumholtz  :  Unknown  Mexico. 

Lummis  :  The  Land  of  Poco  Tiempo. 

Lummis  :  Some  Strange  Corners  of  our  Country. 

Christian  Reid  :  The  Land  of  the  Sun :  Vistas  Mexi- 

canas. 
Wilson  :  Mexico ;  its  Peasants  and  its  Priests. 
Baxter  :  The  Cruise  of  a  Land  Yacht. 

Stephens  :  Travels  in  Yucatan. 
Stephens  :  Travels  in  Central  America. 
Squier  :  The  States  of  Central  America. 
Walker:  Ocean  to  Ocean  (narrative  of  a  surveying 
trip  across  Nicaragua). 

Stoddard:  Cruising  among  the  Caribbees. 

Hurlbert  :  Gan  Eden ;  or,  Pictures  of  Cuba. 

Dana  :  To  Cuba  and  Back. 

Ballou:  Due  South — Cuba,  Past  and  Present. 

Porter  :  Industrial  Cuba. 

Hill  :  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico. 

Robinson  :  The  Porto  Rico  of  To-day. 

SOUTH  AMERICA 
Curtis  :  The  Spanish  Capitals  of  America. 
Oswald  :  Days  and  Nights  in  the  Tropics. 
[  204  ] 


GEOGRAPHY   AND   TRAVELS 

Whymper  :  Travels  among  the  Great  Andes  of  the 

Equator. 
Orton  :  The  Andes  and  the  Amazon. 
Fitzgerald  :  The  Highest  Andes. 
Agassiz  :  Journey  in  Brazil. 
Ewbank  :  Life  in  Brazil. 

C/ Marco y:  Travels  across  South  America. 

Hassaurek  :  Four  Years  among  Spanish  Americans. 

Squier  :  Peru. 

Dixie  :  Across  Patagonia. 

EUROPE 
Emerson:  English  Traits  (184T). 
Escott  :  England ;  her  People,  Policy,  and  Pursuits. 
Miller  :  First  Impressions  of  England  and  its  People 

(1850). 
William  Winter  :  Shakespeare's  England. 
William  Winter  :  Old  Shrines  and  Ivy. 
Dodd  :  Cathedral  Days.  A  Tour  in  Southern  England. 
Besant  :  London  (historical  and  descriptive). 
Besant  :  London's  Great  East  Side. 
Hoppin  :  Old  England ;  Its  Scenery,  Art,  and  People. 
Van  Rensselaer  :  English  Cathedrals. 
Hare  :  Walks  in  London. 

Taylor  :  The  British  Isles  through  an  Opera  Glass. 
Johnson  :  The  Isle  of  the  Shamrock  (Ireland). 

"Xynch  :  French  Life  in  Town  and  Country. 
Taylor  :  Views  Afoot  (middle  of  last  century). 
Macquoid  :  Through  Normandy. 
Mrs.  Dodd:  In  and  Out  of  Three  Normandy  Inns. 
Hamerton  :  Round  My  House  (scenes  in  France). 
[205] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Bulwer  :  France,  Literary,  Social,  and  Political. 
Pennell  :  Play  in  Provence. 

Taine  :  A  Tour  through  the  Pyrenees. 
De  Amicis  :  Spain  and  the  Spaniards. 
Stoddard  :  Spanish  Cities. 
Hare  :  Wanderings  in  Spain. 
Hay  :  Castilian  Days. 
Irving  :  The  Alhambra. 
Irving  :  Tales  of  a  Traveller. 
Henry  Field  :  Old  Spain  and  New. 
Meakin  :  The  Land  of  the  Moors. 
Latouche  :  Travels  in  Portugal. 

Eustis  :  Classical  Tour  through  Italy. 

Dickens  :  Pictures  from  Italy. 

Hare  :  Cities  of  Northern  and  Central  Italy. 

Hare  :  Days  near  Rome. 

Hare  :  Walks  in  Rome. 

Allen  :  Florence. 

V.  W.  Johnson  :  Genoa  the  Superb. 

Howells  :  Italian  Journeys. 

Howells  :  Venetian  Life. 

Taine:  Italy  (Florence  and  Venice). 

Taine:  Italy  (Rome  and  Naples). 

Mahaffy  :  Rambles  and  Studies  in  Greece. 

Townsend  :  A  Cruise  in  the  Bosphorus. 

De  Amicis  :  Constantinople. 

Gautier  :  Constantinople. 

Baker  :  Turkey. 

Sergeant  :  New  Greece. 

Horton  :  Modern  Athens. 

[  206  ] 


GEOGRAPHY   AND   TRAVELS 

Dixon  :  The  Switzers. 
Waring  :  Tyrol  and  the  Skirt  of  the  Alps. 
Whymper  :  Scrambles  amongst  the  Alps. 
Raden  :  Switzerland,  its  Mountains  and  Valleys. 

Hugo  :  A  Tour  on  the  Rhine. 

Stieler  :  The  Rhine  from  its  Source  to  the  Sea. 

Dawson  :  German  Life  in  Town  and  Country. 

Baker  :  Seen  in  Germany. 

Hugo  :  Home  Life  in  Germany. 

Baring-Gould  :  Germany,  Past  and  Present. 

De  Amicis  :  Holland. 

Havard:  Picturesque  Holland. 

Dawson  :  Dutch  Life  in  Town  and  Country. 

Taylor  :  Northern  Europe. 

Du  Chaillu  :  The  Land  of  the  Midnight  Sun. 

Andersen  :  Pictures  of  Travel  in  Sweden. 

MacGregor  :  Rob  Roy  on  the  Baltic. 

Vincent  :  Norsk,  Lapp,  and  Finn. 

Tromholt  :  Under  the  Rays  of  the  Aurora  Borealis. 

Bazan  :  Russia,  its  People  and  its  Literature. 

Hare  :  Studies  in  Russia. 

Tikhomirov  :  Russia,  Political  and  Social. 

Gautier  :  A  Winter  in  Russia. 

Wallace:  Russia. 

Dixon  :  Free  Russia. 

ASIA 

Keane  :  Asia  (general  description). 

Kennan  :  Siberia  and  the  Exile  System. 
Kennan  :  Tent  Life  in  Siberia. 
[  207  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Lansdell  :  Russian  Central  Asia. 
Cobbold:  Innermost  Asia  (1900). 
McGahan  :  Campaigning  on  the  Oxus. 
Burnaby  :  A  Ride  to  Khiva. 
Schuyler  :  Turkistan. 
Wills  :  Persia  as  It  Is. 
Curzon  :  Persia. 

Vambery  :  Travels  in  Central  Asia. 
O'Donovan  :  The  Merv  Oasis. 

Curtis:  The  Howadji  in  Syria  (1852). 

Kinglake  :  Eothen ;  or  Traces  of  Travel  brought  Home 

from  the  East  (1844). 
Wilson  :  In  Scripture  Lands. 
Hilprecht:  Bible  Lands  (1897). 
Warner  :  In  the  Levant. 
Thomson  :  The  Land  and  the  Book. 
Burton  :  The  Land  of  Midian. 
Prime  :  Tent  Life  in  the  Holy  Land. 

Zwemer  :  Arabia;  the  Cradle  of  Islam. 
Blunt  :  The  Bedouin  Tribes. 

Burton:  Personal  Narrative  of  a  Pilgrimage  to  El- 
Medinah  and  Meccah  (1852). 

Butler  :  The  Land  of  the  Vedas. 
Ballou  :  The  Pearl  of  India. 
Lord  Roberts  :  Forty-one  Years  in  India. 
Hunter  :  Annals  of  Rural  Bengal. 
Hunter  :  Orissa  (life  in  India). 
Hornaday  :  Two  Years  in  the  Jungle. 
Baker  :  Rifle  and  Hound  in  Ceylon. 
Vincent  :  The  Land  of  the  White  Elephant. 
[  208  ] 


GEOGRAPHY   AND   TRAVELS 

Leonowens:  An  English  Governess  at  the  Siamese 
Court. 

Landor  :  In  the  Forbidden  Land  (Thibet). 

Hue:  Travels  in  Tartary,  Thibet,  and  China  during 

the  years  1844-46. 
Bonvalot:  Across  Thibet. 
Gordon  :  The  Roof  of  the  World. 

Martin  :  The  Lore  of  Cathay  (art,  literature,  and  re- 
ligion of  China). 
Martin  :  A  Cycle  of  Cathay  (life  in  China). 
Williams  :  The  Middle  Kingdom. 
Gordon-Cumming  :  Wanderings  in  China. 
Smith  :  Village  Life  in  China. 

Edwin  Arnold  :  Japonica. 

Eden  :  China,  Japan,  and  India. 

Greey  :  The  Golden  Lotus  (legends  of  Japan). 

Griffis  :  The  Mikado's  Empire. 

Griffis  :  Japan  in  History,  Folk-lore,  and  Art. 

Bird  :  Unbeaten  Tracks  in  Japan. 

Hearn  :  Gleanings  in  Buddha  Fields  (Japan). 

Hearn  :  Kokoro ;  Hints  and  Echoes  of  Japanese  Inner 

Life. 
Griffis  :  Corea,  the  Hermit  Nation. 
Savage-Landor  :  Corea;  or,  Cho-sen,  the  Land  of  the 

Morning  Calm. 
IsAHELLA  L.  Bishop:  Korea  and  her  Neighbors. 

AFRICA 
Keane:  Africa  (general  description  and  history). 

•   Lane:  Modern  Egyptians. 
Manning  :  The  Land  of  the  Pharaohs. 
[  209  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Baker  :  The  Albert  N'Yanza. 

Speke  :  Journal  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Source  of  the 
Nile. 

Edwards  :  A  Thousand  Miles  up  the  Nile. 

Edwards  :  Pharaohs,  Fellahs,  and  Explorers. 

Welby:  'Twixt  Sirdar  and  Menelik  (through  Abys- 
sinia). 

Rae  :  The  Country  of  the  Moors. 

De  Amicis  :  Morocco ;  its  People  and  Places. 

Schweinfurth  :  The  Heart  of  Africa. 

Livingstone  :  Last  Journals. 

Stanley  :  How  I  Found  Livingstone. 

Stanley  :  Through  the  Dark  Continent. 

Stanley  :  In  Darkest  Africa. 

Stanley  :  Congo  and  the  Founding  of  its  Free  State. 

Drummond  :  Tropical  Africa. 

Du  Chaillu:  Equatorial  Africa  (1855-1859). 

Cameron  :  Across  Africa. 

Livingstone  :  South  Africa. 

Cumming  :  Hunter's  Life  in  South  Africa. 

Burton  :  Zanzibar. 

Bent  :  The  Ruined  Cities  of  Mashonaland. 

MacLeod  :  Madagascar  and  its  People. 

AUSTRALIA  AND  THE  PACIFIC 
Wallace:  Australasia. 
Grant  :  Bush  Life  in  Australia. 
Trollope  :  Australia  and  New  Zealand. 
Warburton  :  Across  Australia. 

Robinson  :  The  Philippines.  A  Record  of  Personal  Ob- 
servations and  Experiences. 
[210] 


GEOGRAPHY   AND   TRAVELS 

Worcester  :  The  Philippine  Islands  and  their  People. 
Gironierre  :  Twenty  Years  in  the  Philippine  Islands. 
Nordhoff  :  Stories  of  the  Island  World. 
Cheever  :  The  Island  World  of  the  Pacific. 
Lamont  :  Wild  Life  among  the  Pacific  Islanders. 
Mrs.  Bird  Bishop  :  The  Hawaiian  Archipelago. 
Dana  :  Corals  and  Coral  Islands. 
Gordon-Cumming  :  At  Home  in  Fiji. 
Wallace  :  Island  Life. 
Stoddard  :  South  Sea  Idylls. 
Melville:  Typee. 

Melville:  Omoo  (stories  of  personal  adventure  in 
the  islands  of  the  Pacific). 

FOR  YOUNG  PEOPLE 
Carpenter  :  Travels  in  North  America. 
Carpenter  :  Travels  in  South  America. 
Carpenter  :  Travels  in  Asia. 
Carpenter  :  Travels  in  Europe. 

(Excellent  for  school  reading.) 
Coffin  :  Our  New  Way  round  the  World. 
Dana  :  Two  Years  before  the  Mast. 
Nordhoff  :  Man-of-War  Life. 
Hale  :  Stories  of  the  Sea  told  by  Sailors. 
Mrs.  Bolton  :  Famous  Voyagers. 
Knox:  The  Boy  Travellers  (16  vols.). 
Butter  worth  :  The  Zigzag  Journeys  (10  vols.). 
Verne  :  Famous  Travels  and  Travellers. 
Verne  :  The  Great  Navigators. 
Verne  :  The  Explorers  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
Jenks  :  Boys'  Book  of  Explorations. 
Knox  :  The  Young  Nimrods  in  North  America. 
[  211  ] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 

Noah  Brooks:  First  Across  the  Continent  (story  of 

Lewis  and  Clark). 
Hale  :  Stories  of  Discovery  told  by  Discoverers. 
Scudder  :  The  Bodleys  Afoot. 
Drake:  Around  the  Hub  (Boston). 
Mayne  Reid  :  The  Land  of  Fire  (Terra  del  Fuego). 
Champney:  Three  Vassar  Girls  Abroad  (travels  in 

Europe). 
Hale:  A  Family  Flight  through  France,  Germany, 

and  Switzerland. 
Boyesen  :  Boyhood  in  Norway. 
Mrs.  Dodge:  The  Land  of  Pluck  (Holland). 
Mrs.  Dodge:  Hans  Brinker,  or  the  Silver  Skates  (a 

story  of  Holland). 
Kingston  :  In  Eastern  Seas. 
Miller  :  Little  People  of  Asia. 
Miller  :  Child  Life  in  Japan. 
Butterworth  :  Traveller  Tales  of  South  Africa. 
Butterworth  :  Traveller  Tales  of  China. 
Du  Chaillu  :  Wild  Life  under  the  Equator. 
Stanley  :  My  Kalulu  (a  story  of  Africa). 
Hale  :  A  Family  Flight  over  Egypt  and  Syria. 
Griffis  :  In  the  Mikado's  Service  (a  story  of  Japan). 
Kipling  :  The  Jungle  Books  (stories  chiefly  of  India). 


[212] 


PHILOSOPHY   AND   RELIGION 


A  little  philosophy  inclineth  a  man's  mind  to  athe- 
ism, but  depth  in  philosophy  bringeth  men's  minds 
about  to  religion. 

Lord  Bacon 


CHAPTER   X 
PHILOSOPHY   AND    RELIGION 

THE  books  which  help  you  most  are  those 
which  make  you  think  the  most/'  says 
Theodore  Parker.  "The  hardest  way  of  learn- 
ing is  by  easy  reading;  every  man  that  tries  it 
finds  it  so." 

And  apropos  of  this,  I  present  the  following 
list  of  books  recommended  by  Dr.  John  Brown 
as  suitable  for  the  reading  of  young  medical 
students.  Yet  not  only  medical  students,  but 
students  of  other  special  subjects,  and  teachers 
as  well,  will  find  it  profitable  to  dig  into  and 
through,  to  "energize  upon"  and  master,  such 
books  as  these:  — 

Arnauld's  Port  Royal  Logic;  translated  by  T.  S. 
Baynes. 

Thomson's  Outlines  of  the  Necessary  Laws  of  Thought. 

Descartes's  On  the  Method  of  Rightly  Conducting  the 
Reason  and  Seeking  Truth  in  the  Sciences. 

Coleridge's  Essay  on  Method. 

Whately's  Logic  and  Rhetoric  (new  and  cheap  edi- 
tion). 

[215] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Mill's  Logic  (new  and  cheap  edition). 
Dugald  Stewart's  Outlines. 
Sir  John  Herschel's  Preliminary  Dissertation. 
Isaac  Taylor's  Elements  of  Thought. 
Reid  :  Dissertations  and  Lectures  (Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton's edition). 
Professor  Fraser's  Rational  Philosophy. 
Locke's  On  the  Conduct  of  the  Understanding. 

"Taking  up  a  book  like  Arnauld,  and  read- 
ing a  chapter  of  his  lively,  manly  sense/'  says 
Rab's  friend,  "is  like  throwing  your  manuals, 
and  scalpels,  and  microscopes,  and  natural 
(most  unnatural)  orders  out  of  your  hand  and 
head,  and  taking  a  game  with  the  Grange 
Club,  or  a  run  to  the  top  of  Arthur  Seat. 
Exertion  quickens  your  pulse,  expands  your 
lungs,  makes  your  blood  warmer  and  redder, 
fills  your  mouth  with  the  pure  waters  of  relish, 
strengthens  and  supples  your  legs;  and  though 
on  your  way  to  the  top  you  may  encounter 
rocks,  and  baffling  debris,  and  gusts  of  fierce 
winds  rushing  out  upon  you  from  behind  cor- 
ners, just  as  you  will  find,  in  Arnauld  and  all 
truly  serious  and  honest  books  of  the  kind, 
difficulties  and  puzzles,  winds  of  doctrine,  and 
[216] 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION 
deceitful  mists,  still  you  are  rewarded  at  the 
top  by  the  wide  view.  You  see,  as  from  a 
tower,  the  end  of  all.  You  look  into  the  per- 
fections and  relations  of  things;  you  see  the 
clouds,  the  bright  lights,  and  the  everlasting 
hills  on  the  horizon.  You  come  down  the  hill  a 
happier,  a  better,  and  a  hungrier  man,  and  of 
a  better  mind.  But,  as  we  said,  you  must  eat 
the  book, — you  must  crush  it,  and  cut  it  with 
your  teeth,  and  swallow  it;  just  as  you  must 
walk  up,  and  not  be  carried  up,  the  hill,  much 
less  imagine  you  are  there,  or  look  upon  a  pic- 
ture of  what  you  would  see  were  you  up,  how- 
ever accurately  or  artistically  done;  no, — you 
yourself  must  do  both." 

The  same  may  be  said  of  all  books  that  are 
the  most  truly  helpful  to  us,  and  mind-lifting. 
It  is  the  hard  reading  that  profits  most,  pro- 
vided, always,  that  due  care  be  taken  to  digest 
that  which  is  read.  Yet  I  would  not  recom- 
mend the  same  strong  diet  or  the  same  severe 
exercise  to  every  person,  or  even  to  any  con- 
siderable proportion  of  readers.  One  man  may 
[  217  ]        • 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
be  a  palm,  as  says  Dr.  Collyer,  and  another  a 
pine ;  that  which  is  wisdom  to  the  one  may  be 
incomprehensible  folly  to  the  other.  But  those 
whose  mental  constitutions  are  sufficiently  vig- 
orous to  digest  and  assimilate  the  food  which 
the  philosophers  offer,  may  find  comfort  and 
health,  not  only  in  the  works  above  recom- 
mended, but  in  the  following:  — 

Plato's  Works :  Jowett's  translation. 

G.  H.  Lewes  :  A  Chapter  from  Aristotle. 

Lord  Bacon  :  Novum  Organum. 

Butler  :  Analogy  of  Religion,  Natural  and  Revealed. 

Hume  :  A  Treatise  on  Human  Nature. 

Hamilton  :  Discussions  on  Philosophy  and  Literature. 

Mill  :  Examination  of  Hamilton's  Philosophy. 

Mill  :  Dissertations  and  Discussions. 

Lewes  :  Problems  of  Life  and  Mind. 

Cousin  :  Lectures  on  the  True,  the  Beautiful,  and  the 

Good. 
Martineau:   The   Positive   Philosophy  of  Auguste 

Comte. 
Mill  :  Comte  and  Positivism. 
Mahaffy:   Kant's  Critical    Philosophy  for  English 

Readers. 
Veitch:  The   Method,  Meditations,  and  Selections 

from  the  Principles  of  Descartes. 
Smith  :  The  Popular  Works  of  Johann  Gottlieb  Fichte. 
Fichte  :  The  Science  of  Knowledge. 

.       [  218  ] 


PHILOSOPHY   AND   RELIGION 

Meiklejohn:  Kant's  Critique  of  the  Pure  Reason 
(published  in  Bonn's  Philosophical  Library). 

Spencer  :  First  Principles  of  Philosophy. 

Bowen  :  Essays  on  Speculative  Philosophy. 

Porter  :  Elements  of  Intellectual  Science. 

Porter  :  The  Human  Intellect. 

McCosh  :  Intuitions  of  the  Mind. 

McCosh  :  System  of  Logic. 

Fiske  :  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy. 

Everett  :  Science  of  Thought. 

Wallace  :  The  Logic  of  Hegel. 

Hegel:  The  Philosophy  of  History  (translated  by 
J.  Sibree,  in  Bohn's  Philosophical  Library). 

Schopenhauer:  Select  Essays  of  Arthur  Schopen- 
hauer (translated  by  Droppers  and  Dachsel). 

Schopenhauer  :  The  World  as  Will  and  Idea. 

Ferrier  :  Lectures  on  Early  Greek  Philosophy. 

Lewes  :  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy. 

Morell:  An  Historical  and  Critical  View  of  the 
Speculative  Philosophy  of  Europe  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century. 

Ueberweg  :  History  of  Philosophy. 

Masson  :  Recent  British  Philosophy. 

Royce  :  The  Spirit  of  Modern  Philosophy. 

Royce  :  Religious  Aspect  of  Philosophy. 

Lecky  :  History  of  European  Morals. 

Lecky  :  History  of  Rationalism  in  Europe. 

Draper  :  History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of 
Europe. 

To  the  foregoing  list  the  following  titles  of 
[219] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

works  on  a  somewhat  different  plane  may  be 

added : — 

Plutarch  :  Morals  (translated  by  Goodwin). 
Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  :  Meditations  (translated 

by  Long). 
Fenelon.  Selections  from  his  Works  (translated  by 

Hawkesworth). 
Burton  :  Anatomy  of  Melancholy. 
Sydney  Smith  :  Sketches  of  Moral  Philosophy. 
Waits  :  On  the  Mind. 
Taine  :  On  Intelligence. 
Lecky  :  The  Map  of  Life. 

Still  another  supplementary  list  would  in- 
clude the  following: — 

Darwin  :  Origin  of  Species. 
Darwin  :  Descent  of  Man. 
Tyndall  :  Fragments  of  Science. 
Huxley  :  Man's  Place  in  Nature. 
Huxley  :  Evolution  and  Ethics. 
Herhert  Spencer  :  Data  of  Ethics. 
Herbert  Spencer  :  Principles  of  Biology. 
Herbert  Spencer  :  Principles  of  Psychology. 
Herbert  Spencer  :  Principles  of  Sociology. 
J.   Mark   Baldwin:  Dictionary  of  Philosophy  and 
Psychology  (for  reference). 

A  course  of  reading  which  shall  include  any 
number  of  the  works  here  mentioned  will  be 
no  child's  play;  it  will  involve  the  severest  ex- 

[  220  ] 


PHILOSOPHY   AND   RELIGION 

ercise  of  the  thinking  powers,  but  it  will  enable 
you  "to  look  into  the  perfections  and  relations 
of  things,  and  to  see  the  clouds,  the  bright 
lights,  and  the  everlasting  hills  on  the  horizon." 
The  reading  of  such  books  is  like  the  training 
of  a  gymnast ;  it  will  lead  to  the  healthy  devel- 
opment of  the  parts  most  skilfully  exercised, 
but  the  strength  of  him  who  exercises  should 
never  be  too  severely  tested. 

Would  you  prefer  a  lighter  course  of  read- 
ing, but  one  which  will  probably  lead  you  into 
pleasanter  paths  of  contemplation  and  reflec- 
tion, and  finally  open  up  to  your  view  a  pros- 
pect equally  boundless  and  grand?  Allow  me  to 
suggest  the  following,  which  is  neither  philo- 
sophical nor  religious,  in  the  strictest  accepta- 
tion of  these  terms,  but  which  leads  us  to  an 
acquaintance  with  that  which  is  best  in  both. 

We  shall  begin  with  the  Bible,  and  through- 
out the  course  we  shall  make  that  book  our 
grand  rallying-point.  "Read  the  Bible  rever- 
ently and  attentively,"  says  Sir  Matthew  Hale; 
"set  your  heart  upon  it,  and  lay  it  up  in  your 
[221  ] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
memory,  and  make  it  the  direction  of  your 
life:  it  will  make  you  a  wise  and  good  man." 
From  the  reverential  reading  of  the  Bible, 
which  to  most  of  us  is  rather  an  act  of  religious 
duty  than  of  intellectual  effort,  we  turn  to  the 
great  masterpieces  of  antiquity.  In  the  "  Phaedo  " 
and  the  "Apology"  and  "Crito"  of  Plato,  we 
find  the  ripest  thoughts  of  the  world's  greatest 
thinker;  then  we  turn  to  Aristotle's  "Ethics," 
and,  afterwards,  we  compare  the  doctrines  of 
the  Greek  philosophers  with  the  "Analects" 
of  Confucius  and  the  "Sayings"  of  Mencius.1 
If  we  have  supplemented  these  readings  with 
the  proper  acquaintance  with  ancient  history, 
we  shall  now  be  ready  to  understand  the  great 
poems  of  antiquity,  and  to  read  them  in  a  light 
different  from  that  which  we  have  hitherto 
known.  We  read  the  "Iliad,"  and  the  "Odys- 
sey," and  the  Greek  tragedians;  then  the  old 
Indian  epics,  Arnold's  "The  Light  of  Asia," 
and  Swamy's  "Dialogues  and  Discourses  of 
Gotama   Buddha."    Descending   now   to   later 

1  Found  in  Chinese  Classics,  by  J.  Legge.  3  vols. 
[  222  ] 


PHILOSOPHY   AND   RELIGION 

times, — for  we  would  not  make  this  course  a 
long  one, — we  turn  again  to  our  Bible,  and 
thoroughly  acquaint  ourselves  with  "the  unsur- 
passedly  simple,  loving,  perfect  idyls  of  the 
life  and  death  of  Christ,"  as  we  find  them  in 
the  New  Testament.  After  this,  we  shall  obtain 
more  exalted  ideas  of  the  brotherhood  of  the 
human  race  and  the  "hope  of  the  nations,"  if 
we  spend  some  time  in  the  study  of  the  ma- 
jestic expressions  of  the  universal  conscience 
found  in  such  works  as  the  "Vishnu  Sarma"  of 
the  Hindoos,  the  "Gulistan"  of  Saadi,  the 
"Sentences"  of  Epictetus,  and  the  "Thoughts" 
of  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus.  Then,  to  get  at 
the  poetic  interpretation  of  the  teachings  of 
Mohammed,  we  read  the  "Pearls  of  Faith;  or, 
Islam's  Rosary,"  and  Lane-Poole's  "Selections 
from  the  Koran."  Returning  to  the  study  of 
Christian  ethics  and  poetry,  we  take  up  the 
"Confessions  of  Saint  Augustine,"  and  the  "Dis- 
course" of  Saint  Bernard,  and  then  the  "Imi- 
tation of  Christ,"  by  Thomas  a  Kempis.  We  read 
Milton's  "Paradise  Lost"  again,  and  Bunyan's 
[  223  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

"Pilgrim's  Progress";  and  we  enjoy  the  wealth 
of  imagery  in  Jeremy  Taylor's  "Holy  Living 
and  Holy  Dying."  Holy  George  Herbert's 
"Sacred  Poems  and  Private  Ejaculations"  claim 
our  attention  for  a  time,  and  then  we  take 
up  Pascal's  "Thoughts/'  and  selections  from 
Fenelon's  "Dialogues  of  the  Dead."  Finally, 
we  read  Wordsworth's  "Excursion,"  and  Ke- 
ble's  "Christian  Year,"  and  return  after  all  to 
a  further  perusal  of  the  Bible  and  the  poems 
of  antiquity. 

You  may  say  that  this  course  is  rather  frag- 
mentary, and  so  it  is;  but  it  differs  from  the 
other  courses  which  I  have  indicated,  in  that 
it  is  undertaken  as  a  heart-work  rather  than  a 
head-work.  Unlike  the  course  just  preceding, 
it  has  to  do  with  our  emotional  and  devotional 
natures  rather  than  with  our  highest  powers 
of  thinking  and  reasoning.  With  few  excep- 
tions only,  the  books  here  mentioned  are  voices 
out  of  the  past,  speaking  to  us  of  the  human 
soul's  belief  and  experience  in  different  ages 
of  the  world  and  under  different  dispensations. 
[  224  ] 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION 
"I  suppose,"  says  George  Eliot,  speaking  of  the 
"Imitation  of  Christ," — "I  suppose  that  is  the 
reason  why  the  small  old-fashioned  book,  for 
which  you  need  only  pay  sixpence  at  a  book- 
stall, works  miracles  to  this  day,  turning  bitter 
waters  into  sweetness;  while  expensive  ser- 
mons and  treatises,  newly  issued,  leave  all 
things  as  they  were  before.  It  was  written 
down  by  a  hand  that  waited  for  the  heart's 
prompting ;  it  is  the  chronicle  of  a  solitary,  hid- 
den anguish,  struggle,  trust,  and  triumph, — not 
written  on  velvet  cushions  to  teach  endurance 
to  those  who  are  treading  with  bleeding  feet 
on  the  stones.  And  so  it  remains  to  all  time  a 
lasting  record  of  human  needs  and  human  con- 
solations ;  the  voice  of  a  brother  who,  ages  ago, 
felt  and  suffered  and  renounced,- — in  the  clois- 
ter, perhaps  with  serge  gown  and  tonsured 
head,  with  much  chanting  and  long  fasts,  and 
with  a  fashion  of  speech  different  from  ours, — 
but  under  the  same  silent  far-off  heavens,  and 
with  the  same  passionate  desires,  the  same  striv- 
ings, the  same  failures,  the  same  weariness." 
[  225  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Writing  of  works  like  these,  Emerson  says: 
"Their  communications  are  not  to  be  given  or 
taken  with  the  lips  and  the  end  of  the  tongue, 
but  out  of  the  glow  of  the  cheek,  and  with  the 
throbbing  heart.  .  .  .  These  are  the  Scriptures 
which  the  missionary  might  well  carry  over 
prairie,  desert,  and  ocean,  to  Siberia,  Japan, 
Timbuctoo.  Yet  he  will  find  that  the  spirit 
which  is  in  them  journeys  faster  than  he,  and 
greets  him  on  his  arrival, — was  there  long 
before  him.  The  missionary  must  be  carried  by 
it,  and  find  it  there,  or  he  goes  in  vain.  Is  there 
any  geography  in  these  things?  We  call  them 
Asiatic,  we  call  them  primeval;  but  perhaps 
that  is  only  optical,  for  Nature  is  always  equal 
to  herself,  and  there  are  as  good  eyes  and  ears 
now  in  the  planet  as  ever  were.  Only  these 
ejaculations  of  the  soul  are  uttered  one  or  a 
few  at  a  time,  at  long  intervals,  and  it  takes 
millenniums  to  make  a  Bible." 

We  are  brought  now  naturally  to  the  sub- 
ject of  theological  literature.  The  number  of 
books  in    this  department   is  very  great,  and 
[  226  ] 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION 
there  are  wide  differences  of  opinion  with  re- 
gard to  the  merits  of  many  of  the  best-known 
works.  Without  attempting  any  sort  of  classi- 
fication, I  shall  name  only  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  books  necessary  for  the  use  of  such 
non-professional  readers  as  may  desire  to  ac- 
quire a  moderate  knowledge  of  the  commonly 
accepted  theological  doctrines: — 

McClintock  and  Strong's  Cyclopaedia  of  Biblical, 
Theological,  and  Ecclesiastical  Literature  (10  vols.). 

Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 

Young's  Analytical  Concordance  to  the  Bible. 

Barrow's  Sacred  Geography  and  Antiquities. 

Dean  Stanley's  Sinai  and  Palestine  in  connection 
with  their  History. 

Clark's  Bible  Atlas,  with  Maps  and  Plans. 

Bissell's  Historic  Origin  of  the  Bible. 

Lange's  Commentary  on  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

Alford's  The  Greek  Testament;  and  The  New  Testa- 
ment for  English  Readers. 

Oehler's  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Weiss's  Biblical  Theology  of  the  New  Testament. 

Geikie's  Hours  with  the  Bible. 

Lenormant's  The  Beginnings  of  History,  according 
to  the  Bible  and  the  Traditions  of  Oriental  Peoples. 

Dean  Stanley's  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Jew- 
ish Church. 

Geikie's  Life  and  Works  of  Christ. 

[  227  J 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Farrar's  Life  of  Christ. 

Farrar's  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul. 

Conybeare  and  Howson's  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul. 

Schaff's  History  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Dean  Milman's  History  of  Latin  Christianity  (8  vols. ). 

Dean  Stanley's  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  East- 
ern Church. 

Fisher's  History  of  the  Christian  Church. 

James  Freeman  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions. 

Moffatt's  Comparative  History  of  Religions. 

Trench's  Lectures  on  Mediaeval  Church  History. 

Ullman's  Reformers  before  the  Reformation. 

Fisher's  History  of  the  Reformation. 

Ranke's  History  of  the  Popes  during  the  Sixteenth 
and  Seventeenth  Centuries. 

Griesinger's  History  of  the  Jesuits. 

Baird's  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Huguenots  in  France. 

Stevens's  History  of  Methodism. 

Tyerman's  Life  and  Times  of  John  Wesley. 

Hagenbach's  History  of  Christian  Doctrines  (trans- 
lated by  C.  W.  Buch). 

Fisher's  Faith  and  Rationalism. 

McCosh's  Christianity  and  Positivism. 

Farrar's  Critical  History  of  Free  Thought  in  refer- 
ence to  the  Christian  Religion. 

Royce's  Religious  Aspect  of  Philosophy. 

Calderwood's  Relations  of  Science  and  Religion. 

Max  Muller's  Science  of  Religion. 

Drummond's  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World. 

Trench's  Shipwrecks  of  Faith. 

Walker's  Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation. 

Smyth's  Old  Faiths  in  New  Light. 
[  228  ] 


PHILOSOPHY   AND   RELIGION 

Brooks's  Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching. 
Dorxer's  System  of  Christian  Doctrine. 
Goulhurn's  Thoughts  on  Personal  Religion. 
Starhuck's  Psychology  of  Religion. 
Savage's  Life  beyond  Death. 

Richard  Baxter,  speaking  of  this  class  of 
books,  says:  "Such  books  have  the  advantage 
in  many  other  respects:  you  may  read  an  able 
preacher  when  you  have  but  a  mean  one  to 
hear.  Every  congregation  cannot  hear  the  most 
judicious  or  powerful  preachers;  but  every  sin- 
gle person  may  read  the  books  of  the  most 
powerful  and  judicious.  Preachers  may  be  si- 
lenced or  banished,  when  books  may  be  at 
hand;  books  may  be  kept  at  a  smaller  charge 
than  preachers:  we  may  choose  books  which 
treat  of  that  very  subject  which  we  desire  to 
hear  of.  Books  we  may  have  at  hand  every  day 
and  hour,  when  we  can  have  sermons  but  sel- 
dom, and  at  set  times.  If  sermons  be  forgotten, 
they  are  gone.  But  a  book  we  may  read  over 
and  over  until  we  remember  it;  and  if  we  for- 
get it,  may  again  peruse  it  at  our  pleasure  or 
at  our  leisure." 

[  229  ] 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY   AND   THE 
SCIENCE   OF   GOVERNMENT 


This  is  that  noble  Science  of  Politics,  which  is  equally 
removed  from  the  barren  theories  of  the  utilitarian 
sophists,  and  from  the  petty  craft,  so  often  mistaken 
for  statesmanship  by  minds  grown  narrow  in  habits 
of  intrigue,  jobbing,  and  official  etiquette,  — which  of 
all  sciences  is  the  most  important  to  the  welfare  of 
nations,  — which  of  all  sciences  most  tends  to  expand 
and  invigorate  the  mind, — which  draws  nutriment 
and  ornament  from  every  part  of  philosophy  and  lit- 
erature, and  dispenses  in  return  nutriment  and  orna- 
ment to  all. 

Macaulay 


CHAPTER  XI 

POLITICAL   ECONOMY   AND    THE 
SCIENCE   OF   GOVERNMENT 

TO  the  student  of  Political  Economy  and 
the  Science  of  Government  I  offer  the 
following  lists  of  books,  embracing  the  best 
works  on  the  various  subjects  connected  with 
this  study.  The  classification  has  been  made 
solely  with  reference  to  the  subject-matter, 
without  any  attempt  to  indicate  the  order  in 
which  the  books  are  to  be  studied, — as  this 
would  be  impossible. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  AND  POLITICS 

Freeman  :  Growth  of  the  English  Constitution. 

Creasy  :  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  English  Constitu- 
tion. 

Stubbs  :  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

Hallam  :  Constitutional  History  of  England  (1485- 
1759). 

Curtis:  History  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

Von  Holst:  Constitutional  History  of  the  United 
States. 

[  233  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Thorpe  :  The  Government  of  the  People  of  the  United 

States. 
De  Tocqueville  :  Democracy  in  the  United  States. 
Lecky  :  Democracy  and  Liberty. 
Bryce  :  The  American  Commonwealth. 
Andrews  :  Manual  of  the  United  States  Constitution 

(new  edition). 
Woodrow  Wilson  :  The  State.  Elements  of  Historical 

and  Practical  Politics. 
Story:   Familiar  Exposition  of  the   United  States 

Constitution. 
Bancroft  :  History  of  the  United  States  (vol.  xi). 
*  Macy  :  Our  Government ;  How  it  grew,  what  it  does, 

and  how  it  does  it. 
Lilly  :  First  Principles  in  Politics. 
Giddings  :  Democracy  and  Empire. 
Jordan  :  Imperial  Democracy. 

GENERAL  WORKS  ON  POLITICAL 
ECONOMY 
Perry  :  An  Introduction  to  Political  Economy. 
Palgrave  :  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy. 
Newcomb  :  Principles  of  Political  Economy. 
Henry  George  :  Science  of  Political  Economy. 
John  Stuart  Mill  :  Principles  of  Political  Economy 

(People's  edition). 
Cairnes  :  Some  Leading  Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy Newly  Expounded. 
Walker  :  The  Elements  of  Political  Economy. 
Perry  :  Elements  of  Political  Economy. 
Bastiat  :  Essays  on  Political  Economy. 
[234] 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY 

Bowen  :  American  Political  Economy. 

Mason  and  Lalor  :  Primer  of  Political  Economy. 

ON  WEALTH  AND  CURRENCY 
Adam  Smith  :  An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes 
of  Wealth. 

Probably  the  most  important  book  that  has  ever 
been  written,  and  certainly  the  most  valuable  con- 
tribution ever  made  by  a  single  man  towards  estab- 
lishing the  principles  on  which  government  should 
be  based. — h.  t.  buckle. 

Carnegie  :  The  Gospel  of  Wealth. 

Lloyd  :  Wealth  against  Commonwealth. 

Jenks  :  The  Trust  Problem. 

Ely  :  Monopolies  and  Trusts. 

Jevons  :  Money  and  the  Mechanism  of  Exchange. 

A.  Walker  :  The  Science  of  Wealth. 

F.  A.  Walker:  Money. 

Bagehot:   Lombard    Street;   a    Description    of  the 

Money  Market. 
Bonamy  Price  :  Principles  of  Currency. 
Bonamy  Price  :  Currency  and  Banking. 
Chevalier  :  Essay  on  the  Probable  Fall  in  the  Value 

of  Gold  (translated  by  Cobden). 
Ricahdo  :  Proposals  for  an  Economical  Currency. 
Poor  :  Money ;  its  Laws  and  History. 
McCulloch:  On  Metallic   and   Paper  Money,   and 

Banks. 
Newcomb  :  The  A  B  C  of  Finance. 
Wells  :  Robinson  Crusoe's  Money. 
Harvey  :  Paper  Money,  the  Money  of  Civilization. 
[235] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Sumner  :  History  of  American  Currency. 

Maclaren  :  History  of  the  Currency. 

Clews  :  The  Wall  Street  Problem. 

Linderman  :  Money  and  Legal  Tender  of  the  United 

States. 
Bolles  :  Financial  History  of  the  United  States,  from 

1789  to  1860. 

ON  BANKING 
MacLeod  :  The  Elements  of  Banking. 
MacLeod  :  Theory  and  Practice  of  Banking. 
Bonamy  Price  :  Currency  and  Banking. 
Gibbons  :  The  Banks  of  New  York. 
Atkinson  :  What  is  a  Bank? 
Gilbart  :  Principles  and  Practice  of  Banking. 
Bagehot  :  Lombard  Street. 

Morse  :  Treatise  on  the  Laws  relating  to  Banks  and 
Banking. 

ON  POPULATION 

Malthus  :  The  Principles  of  Population. 

Mr.  Malthus' s  doctrines  are  opposed  in  the 
following  works: — 

Godwin:  On  Population  (1820). 

Sadler:  The  Law  of  Population  (1830). 

Alison  :  The  Principles  of  Population,  and  their  Con- 
nection with  Human  Happiness  (1840). 

Doubleday:  The  True  Law  of  Population  shown  to 
be  connected  with  the  Food  of  the  People  (1854). 

Herbert  Spencer  :  The  Principles  of  Biology  (vol.  ii). 

Rickards  :  Population  and  Capital  (1854). 

Greg:  Enigmas  of  Life  (1872). 
[  236  ] 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY 

The  Malthusian  doctrine  is  supported  wholly 
or  in  part  by — 

Macaulay,  in  his  Essay  on  Sadler's  Law  of  Popula- 
tion; 

Rev.  Thomas  Chalmers,  in  Political  Economy  in  con- 
nection with  the  Moral  State  and  Moral  Prospects 
of  Society ; 
/  David  Ricardo,  in  Principles  of  Political  Economy ; 
and  some  other  writers.  See,  also,  Roscher's  Politi- 
cal Economy. 

ON  SOCIALISM  AND  COOPERATION 
Nordhoff:  Communistic    Societies    of  the  United 

States. 
Noyes  :  History  of  American  Socialism. 
Ely  :  French  and  German  Socialism  in  Modern  Times. 
Holyoake  :  History  of  Cooperation. 
Woolsey  :  Socialism. 
Barnard  :  Cooperation  as  a  Business. 
Ely  :  French  and  German  Socialism. 
Sumner  :  What  the  Social  Classes  owe  to  each  other. 

The  student  of  socialism  will  doubtless  be 
interested  in  reading  some  of  the  philosophical 
fictions  and  other  works,  written  in  various 
ages,  describing  fanciful  or  ideal  communities 
and  conditions.  The  following  are  the  best: — 

Plato's  Republic. 

Sir  Thomas  More's  Utopia. 

[  237  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Bacon's  New  Atlantis. 

Hall's  Mundus  Alter  et  Idem. 

Harrington's  Oceana. 

Defoe's  Essay  on  Projects. 

Disraeli's  Coningsby,  or  the  New  Generation. 

Bulwer's  The  Coming  Race. 

Bellamy's  Looking  Backward. 

ON  LABOR  AND  WAGES 
Henry  George  :  Progress  and  Poverty. 
Mallock  :  Property  and  Progress. 
Walker  :  Wages  and  the  Wages  Class. 
Rns :  A  Ten  Years'  War. 
Brassey  :  Work  and  Wages. 
Jevons  :  The  State  in  Relation  to  Labor. 
Jervis  :  Labor  and  Capital. 
Thornton:    On    Labor;   its  Wrongful   Claims    and 

Rightful  Dues. 
Wright  :  A  Practical  Treatise  on  Labor. 
Young  :  Labor  in  Europe  and  America. 
Bolles  :  Conflict  of  Labor  and  Capital. 
Arout  :  Hand-Book  of  Social  Economy. 

ON  TAXATION 

Wells  :  The  Principles  of  Taxation. 

R.  T.  Ely  :  Taxation  in  American  Cities. 

Edward  Atkinson  :  Taxation  and  Work. 

D.  A.  Wells  and  Others:  Who  pays  your  Taxes? 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica  :  The  Article  on  Taxation. 


[  238  ] 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY 


t/ 


ON  PAUPERISM 
Fawcett:  Pauperism ;  its  Causes  and  Remedies. 
Sir   George   Nicholl:    Histories    of   the    English, 

Scotch,  and  Irish  Poor  Laws. 
Lecky  :  History  of  European  Morals  (vol.  ii). 

ON  THE  TARIFF  QUESTION 

The    following   works    favor,    more   or    less 

strongly,  the  doctrine  of  Free  Trade :  — 
/*■ 

Adam  Smith  :  On  the  Wealth  of  Nations. 

Walter:  What  is  Free  Trade? 

Sumner:  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Protection  in 
the  United  States. 

Mongredien  :  History  of  the  Free-Trade  Movement. 

Taylor:  Is  Protection  a  Benefit? 

Bastiat  :  Sophisms  of  Protection. 

Fawcett  :  Free  Trade  and  Protection. 

Butts  :  Protection  and  Free  Trade. 

Henry  George  :  Protection  or  Free  Trade. 
(See  also  the  article  on   Free  Trade  by  Thorold 
Rogers,  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.) 

The  following  are  the  most  important  works 
favoring  Protection: — 

Horace  Greeley  :  The  Science  of  Political  Economy. 
E.  Peshine  Smith  :  A  Manual  of  Political  Economy. 
R.  E.  Thompson  :  Social  Science  and  National  Economy. 
H.  C.  Carey  :  Principles  of  Social  Science. 
'     Byles  :  Sophisms  of  Free  Trade. 
[  239  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

WORKS  OF  REFERENCE 

R.  T.  Ely  :  Library  of  Economics  and  Politics. 

McCulloch  :  Literature  of  Political  Economy. 

MacLeod:  A  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  Bio- 
graphical, Historical,  and  Practical. 

Lalor  :  Cyclopaedia  of  Political  Science  and  Political 
Economy  (4  vols.). 

McCulloch  :  Dictionary  of  Commerce. 

Rogers:  History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices  in  Eng- 
land. 

Lecky:  Democracy  and  Liberty  (1896). 


[  240  ] 


ON   THE    PRACTICAL   STUDY   OF 
ENGLISH   LITERATURE 


The  ocean  of  literature  is  without  limit.  How  then 
shall  we  be  able  to  perform  a  voyage,  even  to  a  mod- 
erate distance,  if  we  waste  our  time  in  dalliance  on 
the  shore?  Our  only  hope  is  in  exertion.  Let  our  only 
reward  be  that  of  industry. 

RlNGELBERGIUS 


CHAPTER  XII 

ON    THE    PRACTICAL   STUDY   OF 
ENGLISH    LITERATURE 

THE  student  of  English  literature  has  in- 
deed embarked  upon  a  limitless  ocean. 
A  lifetime  of  study  will  serve  only  to  make 
him  acquainted  with  parts  of  that  great  ex- 
panse which  lies  open  before  him.  He  should 
pursue  his  explorations  earnestly,  and  with  the 
inquiring  spirit  of  a  true  discoverer.  His  thirst 
for  knowledge  should  be  unquenchable;  he 
should  long  always  for  that  mind-food  which 
brings  the  right  kind  of  mind-growth.  He 
should  not  rest  satisfied  with  merely  superficial 
attainments,  but  should  strive  for  that  thor- 
oughness of  knowledge  without  which  there 
can  be  neither  excellence  nor  enjoyment. 

English  literature  is  not  to  be  learned  from 

manuals.  They  are  only  helps, — charts,  buoys, 

lighthouses,  if  you  will  call  them  so;  or  they 

serve  to  you  the  purposes  of  guide-books.  What 

[243] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
do  you  think  of  the  would-be  tourist  who  stays 
at  home  and  studies  his  Baedeker  with  the 
foolish  thought  that  he  is  actually  seeing  the 
countries  which  the  book  describes?  And  yet  I 
have  known  students,  and  not  a  few  teachers, 
do  a  thing  equally  as  foolish.  With  a  Morley,  or 
a  Shaw,  or  even  a  Brooke  in  their  hands,  and  a 
few  names  and  dates  at  their  tongues'  ends,  they 
imagine  themselves  viewing  the  great  ocean 
of  literature,  ploughing  its  surface  and  explor- 
ing its  depths,  when  in  reality  they  are  only 
wasting  their  time  "in  dalliance  on  the  shore." 
English  literature  does  not  consist  in  a  mere 
array  of  names  and  dates  and  short  biographi- 
cal sketches  of  men  who  have  written  books. 
Biography  is  biography;  literature  "is  a  record 
of  the  best  thoughts."  Nevertheless  the  former 
is  often  studied  in  place  of  the  latter.  "For 
once  that  we  take  down  our  Milton,  and  read 
a  book  of  that  f  voice,'  as  Wordsworth  says, 
'  whose  sound  is  like  the  sea,'  we  take  up  fifty 
times  a  magazine  with  something  about  Mil- 
ton, or  about  Milton's  grandmother,  or  a  book 
[  244  ] 


STUDY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 
stuffed  with  curious  facts  about  the  houses  in 
which  he  lived,  and  the  juvenile  ailments  of 
his  first  wife."1  Instead  of  becoming  acquainted 
at  first  hand  with  books  in  which  are  stored 
the  energies  of  the  past,  we  content  ourselves 
with  knowing  only  something  about  the  men 
who  wrote  them.  Instead  of  admiring  with  our 
own  eyes  the  architectural  beauties  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  we  read  a  biography  of  Sir  Christo- 
pher Wren. 

Again,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  litera- 
ture is  one  thing,  and  the  history  of  literature 
is  another.  The  study  of  the  latter,  however 
important,  cannot  be  substituted  for  that  of 
the  fonner;  yet  it  is  not  desirable  to  separate 
the  two.  To  acquire  any  serviceable  knowledge 
of  a  book,  you  will  be  greatly  aided  by  know- 
ing under  what  peculiar  conditions  it  was 
conceived  and  produced, — the  history  of  the 
country,  the  manners  of  the  people,  the  status 
of  morals  and  politics  at  the  time  it  was  writ- 

1  Frederic  Harrison :  Fortnightly  Review  (April,  1879 J, 
—  "On  the  Choice  of  Books ." 
[246] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
ten.  Between  history  and  literature  there  is  a 
mutual  relationship  which  should  not  be  over- 
looked. "  A  book  is  the  offspring  of  the  aggre- 
gate intellect  of  humanity,"  and  it  gives  back 
to  humanity,  in  the  shape  of  new  ideas  and 
new  combinations  of  old  ideas,  not  only  all  that 
which  it  has  derived  from  it,  but  more, — in- 
creased intellectual  vitality,  and  springs  of 
action  hitherto  unknown. 

In  the  study  of  literature,  one  should  begin 
with  an  author  and  with  a  subject  not  too 
difficult  to  understand.  A  beginner  will  be 
likely  to  find  but  little  comfort  in  Chaucer  or 
Spenser,  or  even  in  Emerson;  but  after  he 
has  worked  up  to  them  he  may  study  them 
with  unbounded  delight.  For  a  ready  under- 
standing and  correct  appreciation  of  the  mas- 
terpieces of  English  literature,  a  knowledge 
of  Greek  and  Roman  mythology  and  history 
is  almost  indispensable.  The  student  will  find 
the  courses  of  historical  reading  suggested  in 
a  former  chapter  of  this  book  of  much  value 
in  supplementing  his  literary  studies. 
[246] 


STUDY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 
The  great  works  of  the  world's  master 
minds  should  be  studied  with  some  refer- 
ence to  the  similarity  of  their  subject-matter. 
For  example,  the  reading  of  Shakespeare  will 
give  occasion  to  the  study  of  dramatic  litera- 
ture in  all  its  forms;  the  reading  of  Milton's 
"Paradise  Lost"  will  introduce  us  to  the  great 
epics,  and  to  heroic  poetry  in  general;  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  "Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel" 
will  lead  naturally  to  the  romance  literature  of 
modern  and  mediaeval  times;  Chaucer's  "Can- 
terbury Tales"  fitly  illustrates  the  story-telling 
phase  of  poetry  ;  the  study  of  lyric  poetry  may 
centre  around  the  old  ballads,  the  sonnets,  the 
love  songs,  and  the  religious  hymns  of  our  lan- 
guage; Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  intro- 
duces us  to  allegory,  and  Milton's  "Lycidas"  to 
elegiac  and  pastoral  poetry;  and  to  know  the 
best  specimens  of  argumentative  prose,  we  be- 
gin with  the  speeches  of  Daniel  Webster  and 
end  with  the  orations  of  Demosthenes. 

The  books  named  in  the  following  list  con- 
stitute a  fairly  good  working   library  for   the 
[247] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
practical  study  of  English  literature.  Although 
by  no  means  exhaustive,  it  is  offered  as  a  help 
to  any  one  who  may  be  at  a  loss  in  selecting 
the  best  works  in  any  given  department.  Oc- 
casional suggestions  are  also  inserted  with  a 
view  towards  aiding  literary  students  who  have 
not  the  guidance  of  a  teacher. 

A  WORKING  LIBRARY  OF  ENGLISH 
LITERATURE 

BOOKS    OF    REFERENCE 

Allibone:  A  Critical  Dictionary  of  English  Litera- 
ture and  British  and  American  Authors.  Supple- 
ment by  John  Foster  Kirk  (a  comprehensive  and 
standard  work — 5  large  volumes). 

O.  F.  Adams  :  A  Dictionary  of  American  Authors. 

W.  D.  Adams  :  Dictionary  of  English  Literature  (some- 
what out  of  date  and  not  always  trustworthy,  and 
yet  convenient  and  valuable). 

Brewer  :  The  Reader's  Handbook  of  Facts,  Charac- 
ters, Plots,  and  References  (full  of  valuable  and 
curious  information). 

Peet:  Who's  the  Author?  A  guide  to  American  lit- 
erature (a  valuable  little  manual  answering  many 
questions  regarding  the  authorship  of  books,  poems, 
essays,  etc.). 

Matson  :  References  for  Literary  Workers. 

[  248  ] 


STUDY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE 

Bartxett  :  Familiar  Quotations :  Being  an  attempt  to 
trace  to  their  sources  passages  and  phrases  in  com- 
mon use. 

GENERAL    WORKS    ON    ENGLISH    AND    AMERICAN 
LITERATURE 

Taine  :  History  of  English  Literature  (a  philosophical 
work  to  be  studied  by  advanced  students). 

Johnson  :  Outline  History  of  English  and  American 
Literature. 

Brooke  :  Primer  of  English  Literature. 

Kirkland:  A  Short  History  of  English  Literature, 
for  Young  People. 

Richardson  :  Familiar  Talks  on  English  Literature. 

Morley  :  First  Sketch  of  English  Literature. 

Morley:  English  Writers  (a  voluminous  and  very 
comprehensive  work). 

Mitchell  :  English  Lands,  Letters,  and  Kings  (4  vols. 
A  series  of  delightful  sketches  of  books  and  writers 
from  the  early  Anglo-Saxons  to  Victoria). 

Mitchell:  American  Lands  and  Letters  (2  vols. 
Sketches  and  reminiscences  of  American  writers). 

Tyler:  History  of  American  Literature  (1608-1765). 

Tyler:  The  Literary  History  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution (1763-1783). 

Brander  Matthews:  Introduction  to  American  Lit- 
erature. 

Fisher  :  A  General  Survey  of  American  Literature. 

DRAMATIC    LITERATURE 

Shakespeare's  Works.  There  are  excellent  school  edi- 
tions with  ample  notes  by  H.  N.  Hudson,  W.  J.  Rolfe, 
[  249  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

and  others.  The  "Globe"  Shakespeare  is  a  cheap 
one-volume  edition  of  the  complete  works  which  is 
recommended  to  such  as  are  unable  to  procure  a 
more  expensive  edition. 

Ben  Jonson's  Dramatic  Works.  (Read  selections  from 
Every  Man  in  his  Humour.) 

Marlowe's  Works.  (Read  selections  from  Dr. 
Faustus.) 

Goldsmith's  She  Stoops  to  Conquer. 

Sheridan's  School  for  Scandal. 

Bulwer's  Richelieu. 

Tennyson's  Queen  Mary. 

Shelley's  Prometheus  Unbound. 

Swinhurne's  Atalanta  in  Calydon. 

Rohert  Browning's  Dramas. 

Stephen  Phillips's  Herod. 

Criticism  and  Comment 

Mary  Cowden  Clarke  :  Shakespeare  Concordance  (for 
reference). 

Hazlitt  :  Characters  of  Shakespeare's  Plays. 

Coleridge  :  Literary  Remains. 

Leigh  Hunt  :  Imagination  and  Fancy. 

Dowden  :  Shakspere  Primer. 

Dowden  :  The  Mind  and  Art  of  Shakspere. 

Abhott  :  Shakespearian  Grammar. 

White  :  Studies  in  Shakespeare. 

Moulton  :  Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatic  Artist. 

Hamilton  Mabie  :  William  Shakespeare,  Poet,  Dram- 
atist, and  Man. 

William  Winter  :  Shakespeare's  England. 

Lowell:  The  Old  English  Dramatists. 
[  250  ] 


STUDY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE 

Whipple  :  Literature  of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth. 
Charles  Lamb  :  Notes  on  the  Elizabethan  Dramatists. 
Ward  :  English  Dramatic  Literature. 
Hazlitt  :  English  Comic  Writers. 
Johnson:  Lives  of  the  Poets — Dryden. 
Thackeray:  English  Humorists  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century. 

Advanced  Supplementary  Study 
.55scHYLus.  Translation  by  Potter. 
Euripides.  Translation  by  Cartwright. 
Sophocles.  Translation  by  Plumptre. 
Aristophanes  :  The  Clouds  (translation  by  Mitchell). 

Mrs.  Browning  :  Prometheus  Bound. 
Robert  Browning  :  Balaustion's  Adventure. 
Church  :  Stories  from  the  Greek  Tragedians. 
Church  :  Stories  from  the  Greek  Comedians. 

Schlegel  :  History  of  Dramatic  Literature. 
Ward  :  History  of  the  Drama. 

Macready  :  Reminiscences. 

Lewes  :  Actors  and  the  Art  of  Acting. 

Hutton  :  Plays  and  Players. 

EPIC    POETRY 

Milton  :  Paradise  Lost. 

Criticism  and  Comment 
Himes  :  A  Study  of  Paradise  Lost. 
Masson  :  Milton's  Poetical  Works.  Introduction. 
Masson  :  Life  and  Times  of  John  Milton. 
Stopford  Brooke  :  Milton. 
Mark  Pattison  :  Milton. 

[251  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Samuel  Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets.  Milton. 
Macaulay's  Essays.  Milton. 

Hazlitt's  English  Poets.  Essay  on  Shakespeare  and 
Milton. 

Advanced  Supplementary  Study 

Homer's  Iliad  (prose  translation  by  Lang,  Leaf,  and 
Myers.  Poetical  translation  by  Chapman,  Pope, 
Derby,  or  Bryant). 

Homer's  Odyssey  (prose  translation  by  Butcher  and 
Lang). 

Dante's  Divina  Commedia  (translation  by  Long- 
fellow). 

Virgil's  jEneid  (translation  by  Conington  or  by 
William  Morris). 

Lowell's  Among  my  Books. 

Symonds's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Dante. 

Botta's  Dante  as  a  Philosopher,  Patriot,  and  Poet. 

Carlyle's  Heroes  and  Hero- Worship. 

Southey's  Poems  :  Joan  of  Arc  (an  attempted  epic). 

Lan dor's  Works :  Gebir  (an  attempted  epic). 

Pope's  Poems :  The  Rape  of  the  Lock  (mock  heroic). 

NARRATIVE    AND    ROMANTIC    POETRY 

Scott  :  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel. 

Scott  :  The  Lady  of  the  Lake. 

Scott:  Marmion. 

Tennyson  :  Idylls  of  the  King. 

Byron:  Poems  (for  his  Giaour,  Corsair,  Bride  of 

Abydos,  etc.). 
Moore  :  Lalla  Rookh. 
Morris  :  Sigurd  the  Volsung. 
[  252  ] 


STUDY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE 

Chaucer  :  The  Canterbury  Tales. 

Scott:  Poems  (for  Rokeby,  Harold  the  Dauntless, 
and  shorter  narrative  poems). 

Wordsworth  :  Poems  (for  many  narrative  pieces). 

Coleridge  :  Poems  (for  The  Ancient  Mariner). 

Keats  :  Poems  (for  The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes). 

Campbell  :  Poems  (for  Gertrude  of  Wyoming). 

Mrs.  Browning:  Poems  (for  Lady  Geraldine's  Court- 
ship, Aurora  Leigh,  and  other  narrative  poems). 

Tennyson  :  Poems  (for  The  Princess,  Maud,  Enoch 
Arden,  etc.). 

Morris  :  The  Earthly  Paradise. 

Longfellow:  Poems  (for  Evangeline,  Hiawatha, 
Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn,  Miles  Standish,  etc.). 

Whittier  :  Poems  (for  Snow-Bound,  Maud  Muller, 
and  many  others). 

Criticism  and  Comment 
Carlyle's  Essays  (for  that  on  Sir  Walter  Scott). 
Macaulay's  Essays  (for  that  on  Southey's  Life  of 

Byron). 
Hutton  :  Sir  Walter  Scott  (in  English  Men  of  Letters 

series). 
Charles  Cowden  Clarke:  The  Riches  of  Chaucer. 
Lounsbury  :  Studies  in  Chaucer. 
Storr  and  Turner  :  Canterbury  Chimes. 
Hazlitt  :  The  English  Poets. 
Swinbuhne:  Studies  and  Essays. 
Shairp  :  Studies  in  Poetry. 
Lord  Houghton  :  Life  of  John  Keats. 
Carlyle  :  Reminiscences. 
Stedman  :  Victorian  Poets. 

[  253  ] 


r 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 

Kingsley  :  Miscellanies. 

Ward's  English  Poets  (4  vols.  Classical  and  popular 

extracts,  with  lives  of  the  poets  and  critical  essays 

upon  their  works). 

ALLEGORY 

Bunyan  :  The  Pilgrim's  Progress. 

Langland:  The  Vision  of  William  concerning  Piers 

Ploughman. 
Chaucer  :  Poems  (for  the  Romaunt  of  the  Rose). 
Spenser  :  The  Faerie  Queene. 
Thomson  :  Poems  (for  The  Castle  of  Indolence). 
Lowell  :  The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal. 
Burns  :  Poems  (for  the  Twa  Dags,  and  The  Brigs  of 

Ayr). 
Leigh  Hunt  :  Poems  (for  Abou  Ben  Adhem). 
Gay's  Fables. 
jEsop's  Fables  (version  by  Joseph  Jacobs). 

Criticism  and  Comment 
Froude  :  John  Bunyan  (in  English  Men  of  Letters). 
Morley  :  English  Writers. 
Marsh  :  Lectures,  on  the  Origin  and  History  of  the 

English  Language. 
S  keats  :  Specimens  of  English  Literature. 
Taine  :  History  of  English  Literature. 

DIDACTIC    POETRY 

Dryden  :  Poems  (for  Religio  Laici,  and  The  Hind  and 

the  Panther). 
Pope  :  Poems  (for  Essay  on  Criticism,  and  Essay  on 

Man). 

[254  J 


STUDY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE 

Young  :  Night  Thoughts. 

Campbell  :  The  Pleasures  of  Hope. 

Wordsworth  :  Poems  (for  The  Excursion). 

Johnson  :  Works  (for  the  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes). 

Criticism  and  Comment 
Johnson  :  Lives  of  the  Poets. 
Macaulay  :  Essays  (for  that  on  Johnson). 
Carlyle  :  Essays  (for  that  on  Boswell). 
Stephens  :  Johnson  (in  English  Men  of  Letters). 
Hazlitt  :  The  Spirit  of  the  Age. 

LYRIC    POETRY 

Percy  :  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry. 

Aytoun  :  Scottish  Ballads. 

Scott  :  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border. 

Moore  :  Sacred  Songs  and  Hebrew  Melodies. 

Milman  :  Hymns  for  Church  Service. 

Bullen  :  Lyrics  from  the  Song  Books  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan Age. 

Bullen:  Lyrics  from  the  Dramatists  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan Age. 

Caine  :  Love  Songs  of  the  English  Poets. 

Ward:  The  English  Poets  (4  vols.). 

Linton  and  Stoddard:  English  Verse  (5  vols.). 

Stedman  :  A  Victorian  Anthology. 

Stedman  :  An  American  Anthology,  1780-1895. 

Bryant  :  Library  of  Poetry  and  Song. 

Milton  :  Lycidas  (several  good  school  editions). 
Tennyson:  In  Memoriam  (edition  with  analysis  by 
F.  W.  Robertson). 

[  255  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Shelley  :  Adonais  (edited  by  W.  H.  Rossetti). 
Baldwin  :  The  Book  of  Elegies. 

Criticism  and  Comment 
Taine  :  History  of  English  Literature. 
Leigh  Hunt  :  The  Book  of  the  Sonnet. 
Dennis  :  English  Sonnets. 
Massey  :  Shakespeare's  Sonnets. 
Tomlinson:  The  Sonnet:  its  Origin,  Structure,  and 
Place  in  Poetry. 

DESCRIPTIVE    POETRY 

James  Thomson  :  The  Seasons. 
William  Cowper  :  The  Task. 
Oliver  Goldsmith  :  Poems. 
John  G.  Whittier  :  Snow-Bound. 
William  Cullen  Bryant  :  Poems. 

Spenser  :  The  Shepherd's  Calendar. 
Milton  :  L' Allegro  and  II  Penseroso. 

Criticism  and  Comment 
Goldwin  Smith  :  Cowper  (English  Men  of  Letters). 
Irving  :  Oliver  Goldsmith. 

De  Quincey  :  Literature  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 
Godwin  :  Life  of  William  Cullen  Bryant. 

SATIRE,    WIT,    AND    HUMOR 

Dean  Swift  :  Works  (for  Gulliver's  Travels). 

Butler:  Hudibras. 

Lowell:  Works  (for  Biglow  Papers  and  Fable  for 

Critics). 
Thackeray  :  Irish  Sketch  Book. 
[  256  ] 


STUDY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE 

Dickens  :  The  Pickwick  Papers. 

Irving  :  Knickerbocker's  New  York. 

Artemus  Ward  :  Works. 

Mark  Twain  :  Innocents  Abroad. 

Parton  :  Humorous  Poetry  of  the  English  Language. 

Criticism  and  Comment 
Thackeray  :  Humorists  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 
Hazlitt  :  Comic  Writers. 
Besant:  French  Humorists. 
Smith  :  Wit  and  Wisdom  of  Sydney  Smith. 
Leslie  Stephen  :  Swift  (English  Men  of  Letters). 

PROSE    FICTION 

Sidney  :  The  Countess  of  Pembroke's  Arcadia. 

Defoe  :  Robinson  Crusoe. 

Richardson:    Pamela;  Clarissa    Harlowe;   and  Sir 

Charles  Grandison. 
Fielding  :  Tom  Jones. 
Miss  Burney:  Evelina;  and  Cecilia. 
Goldsmith  :  Vicar  of  Wakefield. 
Godwin  :  Caleb  Williams. 
Miss  Edgeworth  :  Castle  Rackrent. 
Mrs.  Shelley  :  Frankenstein. 
Lewis  :  The  Monk. 
Walpole  :  The  Castle  of  Otranto. 
Beckford  :  Vathek. 
Hope  :  Anastasius. 
Jane  Porter  :  The  Scottish  Chiefs. 
Miss  Austen  :  Pride  and  Prejudice. 
Scott  :  The  Waverley  Novels. 
Sir  Thomas  More  :  Utopia. 

[257] 


THE   BOOK    LOVER 

Disraeli  :  Coningsby. 

Bulwer-Lytton  :  The  Coming  Race. 

Bunyan  :  Pilgrim's  Progress. 

Samuel  Johnson  :  Rasselas. 

Thackeray  :  Vanity  Fair ;  Pendennis ;  The  Newcomes ; 

and  Henry  Esmond. 
Dickens:  David  Copperfield;  Pickwick  Papers;  Old 

Curiosity  Shop ;  and  Dombey  and  Son. 
Charlotte  Bronte  :  Jane  Eyre. 
Disraeli  :  Vivian ;  and  Lothair. 
Charles  Kingsley  :  Hypatia ;  and  Westward  Ho ! 
George  Eliot  :  Adam  Bede ;  and  Romola. 
Blackmore  :  Lorna  Doone. 
Charles  Reade  :  The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth. 

Charles  Brockden  Brown  :  Wieland. 

James  Fenimore  Cooper  :  Leather-Stocking  Tales. 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne  :  The  Scarlet  Letter ;  and  The 

Marble  Faun. 
Edgar  Allan  Poe  :  Tales  of  Imagination  and  Humor. 

Criticism  and  Comment 
Dunlop  :  History  of  Fiction. 
Jeaffreson  :  Novels  and  Novelists. 
Masson  :  British  Novelists  and  their  Styles. 
Tuckerman  :  History  of  English  Prose  Fiction. 
Sidney  Lanier  :  The  English  Novel. 
Simonds  :  Introduction  to  English  Fiction. 
Minto  :  Manual  of  English  Prose. 
Lockhart  :  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
Leslie  Stephen  :  Hours  in  a  Library. 
Thomas  Carlyle  :  Essays  (on  Sir  Walter  Scott). 
Hutton  :  Scott  (English  Men  of  Letters). 
[  258  ] 


STUDY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE 

Nassau  Senior  :  Essays  on  Fiction. 
Hazlitt  :  English  Novelists. 
Macaulay  :  Essays. 

Miss  Kavanagh  :  English  Women  of  Letters. 
James  T.  Fields  :  Yesterdays  with  Authors. 
Horne  :  The  New  Spirit  of  the  Age. 
John  Forster  :  Life  of  Charles  Dickens. 
Hannay  :  Studies  on  Thackeray. 
Hannay  :  Characters  and  Sketches. 
Mrs.  Gaskell  :  Life  of  Charlotte  Bronte. 
Thackeray  :  Roundabout  Papers. 
Henry  James  :  Hawthorne  (English  Men  of  Letters). 
Cooke:   George  Eliot;  a  critical  study  of  her  life, 
writings,  and  philosophy. 

Other  departments  of  English  literature  are 
sufficiently  covered  in  the  lists  given  in  former 
chapters  of  this  volume.  I  close  this  chapter 
with  the  titles  of  a  few  books  of  value  and  in- 
terest to  every  student  of  literature. 

Murray  :  A  History  of  Ancient  Greek  Literature. 
Mahaffy  :  History  of  Greek  Classical  Literature. 
Crutwell  :  History  of  Roman  Literature. 
Macdonell  :  A  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature. 
Poor  :  Sanskrit  and  its  Kindred  Literatures. 
Dowden  :  A  History  of  French  Literature. 
Van  Laun  :  History  of  French  Literature  (3  vols.). 
Garnett  :  A  History  of  Italian  Literature. 
Ticknor  :  History  of  Spanish  Literature  (3  vols.). 
[  259  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Sismondi  :  The  Literature  of  the  South  of  Europe. 
Waoszewski  :  A  History  of  Russian  Literature. 
Aston  :  A  History  of  Japanese  Literature. 
Giles  :  A  History  of  Chinese  Literature. 
Saintsbury  :  A  Short  History  of  French  Literature. 
Saintsbury  :  History  of  Elizabethan  Literature. 
C.  F.  Richardson  :  American  Literature. 

Gosse  :  History  of  Seventeenth  Century  Literature. 
Gosse  :  History  of  Eighteenth  Century  Literature. 
Gosse  :  History  of  Nineteenth  Century  Literature. 
Gosse  :  From  Shakespeare  to  Pope. 
Stephen  :  English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 
Putnam  :  Books  and  their  Makers  during  the  Middle 

Ages. 
Saintsbury  :  Essays  in  English  Literature,  1780-1860. 
Saintsbury  :  Essays  on  French  Novelists. 

Saintsbury  :  The  Earlier  Renaissance. 

Saintsbury:  The  Flourishing  of  Romance  and  the 

Rise  of  Allegory. 
Smith  :  The  Transition  Period. 
Omond  :  The  Romantic  Triumph. 
Pater  :  The  Renaissance. 
Hannay  :  The  Later  Renaissance. 
Symonds  :  The  Renaissance  in  Italy. 
Snell  :  The  Fourteenth  Century. 
Elton  :  The  Augustan  Age. 
Brownell  :  Victorian  Prose  Masters. 
Wendell  :  A  Literary  History  of  America. 
Griswold  :  Home  Life  of  Great  Authors. 

Stevenson  :  Familiar  Studies  of  Men  and  Books. 
[  260  ] 


STUDY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE 

Birrell:  Obiter  Dicta  (2  vols.). 
Birreix:  Men,  Women,  and  Books. 
Lang  :  Letters  to  Dead  Authors. 
Dobson  :  Eighteenth  Century  Essays. 
Mrs.  Fields  :  Authors  and  Friends. 
Hutton:  Literary  Landmarks  (London,  Edinburgh, 
Paris,  Rome,  Venice — 5  vols.). 

Eugene  Field  :  Love  Affairs  of  a  Bibliomaniac. 
Lang  :  Books  and  Bookmen. 
Clark  :  The  Care  of  Books. 
Burton  :  The  Book  Hunter. 

Richard  de  Bury  :  Philobiblon  (translated  by  Ernest 
C.  Thomas). 


[261] 


"THE   HUNDRED   BEST  BOOKS' 


To  any  lover  of  books  the  very  mention  of  these 
names  brings  back  a  crowd  of  delicious  memories, 
grateful  recollections  of  peaceful  home  hours,  after 
the  labors  and  anxieties  of  the  day.  How  thankful  we 
ought  to  be  for  these  inestimable  blessings,  for  this 
numberless  host  of  friends  who  never  weary,  betray, 
or  forsake  us ! 

Sir  John  Lubbock 


CHAPTER   XIII 

"THE    HUNDRED    BEST    BOOKS" 

1HAVE  often  wished  some  one  would  rec- 
ommend a  hundred  good  books.  In  the  ab- 
sence of  such  lists  I  have  picked  out  the  books 
most  frequently  mentioned  with  approval  by 
those  who  have  referred  directly  or  indirectly 
to  the  pleasures  of  reading,  and  have  ventured 
to  include  some  which  though  less  frequently 
mentioned/ are  especial  favorites  of  my  own.'' 
Such  was  the  prelude  of  an  address  delivered 
by  Sir  John  Lubbock,  in  January,  1886,  to  the 
members  of  the  Workingmen's  College,  Lon- 
don. That  address,  with  the  list  of  books  rec- 
ommended therein,  was  the  beginning  of  a 
spirited  discussion  among  readers  and  book 
lovers  both  in  England  and  in  America,  which 
resulted,  among  other  things,  in  proving  that 
in  so  small  (?)  a  matter  as  the  selection  of  a 
hundred  books  no  two  scholars  can  agree.  It 
resulted,  also,  in  the  formation  of  several  lists, 
[  265  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 
each  of  a  hundred  good  books,  from  which  any 
reader   can   select  without    danger  of  serious 
error.  Sir  John  Lubbock's  list  is  as  follows: — 

LIST  OF  ONE  HUNDRED  BOOKS 

Works  by  Living  Authors  are  omitted 
The  Bible.  • 

Marcus  Aurelius's  Meditations. 

Epictetus. 

Confucius's  Analects. 

St.  Hilaire's  Le  Bouddha  et  sa  Religion. 

Aristotle's  Ethics. 

Mahomet's  Koran  (portions  of). 

Wake's  Apostolic  Fathers. 

St.  Augustine's  Confessions  (Dr.  Pusey's  translation). 

Thomas  a  Kejipis's  Imitation  of  Christ. 

Pascal's  Pensees. 

Spinoza's  Tractatus  Theologico-Politicus. 

Comte's  Catechism  of  Positive  Philosophy  (Congreve). 

Butler's  Analogy  of  Religion. 

Jeremy  Taylor's  Holy  Living  and  Holy  Dying. 

Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress. 

Keble's  Christian  Year. 

Plato's  Dialogues, — at  any  rate  the  Apology,  Crito, 

and  Phaedo. 
Aristotle's  Politics. 
Xenophon's  Memorabilia. 
Demosthenes's  De  Coronet. 

Cicero's  De  Officiis ;  De  Amicitia ;  and  De  Senectute. 
[  266  ] 


"THE   HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS" 

Berkeley's  Human  Knowledge. 
Descartes's  Discours  sur  la  Methode. 
Locke's  On  the  Conduct  of  the  Human  Understand- 
ing. 
Plutarch's  Lives. 

Homer's  Iliad  and  Odyssey. 

Hesiod's  Works  and  Days. 

Virgil's  ^Eneid  and  Georgics. 

Mahabharata  and  Ramayana,  epitomized  by  Talboys 

Wheeler  in  the  first  two  volumes  of  his  History  of 

India. 
The  Nibelungenlied. 
Malory's  Morte  d' Arthur. 

Firdusi's  Shahnameh  (translation  by  Atkinson). 
The  Sheking  (Chinese  Odes). 
Kalidasa's  Sakuntala  or  the  Lost  Ring. 

jEschylus's  Prometheus ;  House  of  Atreus ;  Trilogy  of 

Orestes. 
Sophocles's  CEdipus. 
Euripides's  Medea. 

Aristophanes's  The  Knights ;  and  Clouds. 
Horace's  Odes. 

Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales.  Morris's  (or,  if  expur- 
gated, Clarke's  or  Mrs.  Haweis's)  edition. 

Shakespeare. 

Milton's  Paradise  Lost;  Lycidas;  Comus;  and  the 
shorter  poems. 

Dante's  Divina  Commedia. 

Spenser's  Faerie  Queene. 

Dryden's  Poems. 

[  267  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Scott's  Poems. 

Wordsworth  (Mr.  Arnold's  selection). 

Pope's  Essay  on  Criticism ;  Essay  on  Man ;  and  Rape 

of  the  Lock. 
Byron's  Childe  Harold. 
Tennyson's  Poems. 
Gray. 
Burns. 

Herodotus. 

Xenophon's  Anabasis. 

Thucydides. 

Tacitus's  Germania. 

Livy. 

Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Hume's  History  of  England. 

Grote's  History  of  Greece. 

Carlyle's  French  Revolution. 

Green's  Short  History  of  England. 

Lewes's  History  of  Philosophy. 

Bacon's  Novum  Organum. 

Mill's  Logic  and  Political  Economy. 

Darwin's  Origin  of  Species ;  and  A  Naturalist's  Voyage. 

Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations  (part  of). 

Cook's  Voyages. 

Humboldt's  Travels. 

White's  Natural  History  of  Selborne. 

The  Arabian  Nights. 
Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield. 
Swift's  Gulliver's  Travels. 
Defoe's  Robinson  Crusoe. 

[  208  ] 


"THE   HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS" 

Cervantes's  Don  Quixote. 
Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson. 

Burke's  Select  Works  (Payne). 
Carlyle's  Past  and  Present. 
Smiles's  Self  Help. 

Essayists, — Bacon,    Addison,    Hume,    Montaigne, 
Macaulay,  Emerson. 

Moliere's  Dramatic  Works. 

Sheridan's  The  Critic ;  School  for  Scandal ;  and  The 

Rivals. 
Schiller's  William  Tell. 

Voltaire's  Zadig ;  and  Micromegas. 
Goethe's  Faust;  and  Autobiography. 

Thackeray's  Vanity  Fair ;  and  Pendennis. 
Dickens's  Pickwick;  and  David  Copperfield. 
George  Eliot's  Adam  Bede. 
Kingsley's  Westward  Ho ! 
Bulwer-Lytton's  Last  Days  of  Pompeii. 
Scott's  Novels. 

In  a  note  of  explanation  directed  to  the 
editor  of  the  "Pall  Mall  Gazette,"  Sir  John 
says:  "I  may  observe  that  I  drew  up  the  list, 
not  as  that  of  the  hundred  best  books,  but, 
which  is  very  different,  of  those  which  on  the 
whole  are  best  worth  reading." 

Commenting  upon  the  above  list,  Mr.  Ruskin 
says:  "Putting  my  pen  lightly  through  the 
[  269  ] 


THE  BOOK  LOVER 
needless — and  blottesquely  through  the  rub- 
bish and  poison  of  Sir  John's  list — I  leave 
enough  for  a  life's  liberal  reading,  and  choice 
for  any  true  worker's  loyal  reading.  I  have 
added  one  quite  vital  and  essential  book, — 
Livy  (the  first  two  books),  and  three  plays  of 
Aristophanes  ('Clouds/  ' Birds/  and  'Plutus'). 
Of  travels,  I  read  myself  all  old  ones  I  can 
get  hold  of;  of  modern,  Humboldt  is  the  cen- 
tral model.  Forbes  (James  Forbes  in  Alps)  is 
essential  to  the  modern  Swiss  tourist — of 
sense."  And  then  Mr.  Ruskin  proceeds  with 
his  demolition  of  Sir  John's  list.  He  strikes 
out  all  the  works  on  morals,  theology,  and 
devotion  at  the  head  of  the  list,  leaving  only 
Jeremy  Taylor  and  the  "Pilgrim's  Progress." 
He  strikes  out  also  Sophocles,  Euripides,  Gib- 
bon, Voltaire,  Hume,  Grote,  Swift,  Macaulay, 
Emerson,  Thackeray,  George  Eliot,  Kingsley, 
and  Bulwer-Lytton.  Among  the  philosophers 
he  spares  only  Bacon;  among  the  novelists, 
only  Scott  and  Dickens;  among  the  essayists, 
only  Addison  and  Montaigne.  In  a  letter,  writ- 
[  270  ] 


"THE  HUNDRED  BEST  BOOKS'* 
ten  shortly  afterward,  he  says:  "As  for  advice 
to  scholars  in  general,  I  do  not  see  how  any 
modest  scholar  could  venture  to  advise  an- 
other. Every  man  has  his  own  field,  and  can 
only  by  his  own  sense  discover  what  is  good 
for  him  in  it." 

It  has  often  been  asked  by  lovers  of  good 
fiction,  "What  are  the  hundred  best  novels?" 
The  following  list,  prepared  some  years  ago  by 
Mr.  F.  B.  Perkins  for  the  "Library  Journal," 
although  by  no  means  perfect,  contains  the 
titles  of  a  considerable  portion  of  all  that  is 
best  in  the  department  of  prose  fiction,  together 
with  those  of  several  works  of  more  doubtful 
value:  — 


Don  Quixote.    — 
Gil  Bias. 

Pilgrim's  Progress. 
A  Tale  of  a  Tub. 
Gulliver's  Travels. 
The  Vicar  of  Wakefield. 
Robinson  Crusoe.       "" 
The  Arabian  Nights. 
The  Decameron. 
Wilhelm  Meister. 
Vathek. 


Corinne  or  Italy. 

Undine. 

Sintram. 

Thisdolf. 

Peter  Schlemihl. 

Anastasius. 

Sense  and  Sensibility.    — 

Pride  and  Prejudice.    - 

Mary  Powell. 

The  Amber  Witch. 

Household  of  T.  More. 


[271] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 


Guy  Mannering. 

The  Antiquary. 

The   Bride    of   Lammer- 

moor.   • 
A  Legend  of  Montrose. 
Rob  Roy. 
Woodstock. 
Ivanhoe.    ~ 
The  Talisman. 
The  Fortunes  of  Nigel. 
Old  Mortality. 
Quentin  Durward.  — - 
The  Heart  of  Midlothian. 
Kenilworth. 
Fair  Maid  of  Perth. 
Vanity  Fair.  — 
Pendennis. 
The  Newcomes. 
Henry  Esmond. 
Adam  Bede.  — 
The  Mill  on  the  Floss. 
Romola. 
Middlemarch. 
Pickwick  Papers. 
Martin  Chuzzlewit. 
Nicholas  Nickleby. 
David  Copperfield.  — 
Bleak  House. 
A  Tale  of  Two  Cities.  — 
Dombey  and  Son. 
Oliver  Twist. 
Tom  Cringle's  Log.         \ 


The  Cruise  of  the  Midge. 
Japhet    in    Search    of   a 

Father. 
Peter  Simple. 
Midshipman  Easy. 
The  Scarlet  Letter. 
The  House  of  the  Seven 

Gables. 
The  Wandering  Jew. 
The  Mysteries  of  Paris. 
Humphrey  Clinker. 
Eugenie  Grandet. 
Charles  O'Malley. 
Harry  Lorrequer. 
Handy  Andy. 
Challenge  of  Barletta. 
Betrothed  (Manzoni's).  — 
Counterparts. 
Charles  Auchester. 
Tom  Brown's  School  Days. 
Tom  Brown  at  Oxford. 
Lady  Lee's  Widowhood. 
Horseshoe  Robinson. 
The  Pilot. 
The  Spy. 

The  Last  of  the  Mohicans. 
Jane  Eyre. 
Tom  Jones. 
My  Novel. 
On  the  Heights. 
The  Three  Guardsmen. 
Monte  Cristo. 


[  272  ] 


"THE   HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS' 


Les  Miserables 

Notre-Dame. 
Consuelo. 

Fadette  (Fanchon). 
The  Woman  in  White. 
Love  Me  Little  Love  Me 

Long. 
Two  Years  Ago. 
Yeast. 
Coningsby. 


The  Young  Duke. 

The  Bachelor  of  Albany. 

Hyperion. 

Kavanagh. 

The  Minister's  Wooing. 

Knickerbocker's         New 

York. 
Elsie  Venner. 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin. 


Henry  M.  Stanley,  the  African  explorer, 
writing  to  the  editor  of  the  "Pall  Mall  Ga- 
zette," says:  "You  asked  me  what  books  I 
carried  with  me  to  take  across  Africa.  I  car- 
ried a  great  many, — three  loads,  or  about  one 
hundred  and  eighty  pounds  weight;  but  as  my 
men  lessened  in  numbers,  stricken  by  famine, 
fighting,  and  sickness,  one  by  one  they  were 
reluctantly  thrown  away,  until  finally,  when 
less  than  three  hundred  miles  from  the  Atlan- 
tic, I  possessed  only  the  Bible,  Shakespeare, 
Carlyle's  ' Sartor  Resartus,'  Norie's  'Naviga- 
tion,' and  the  Nautical  Almanac  for  1877." 
Then  follows  the  list  of  the  books  with 
which   he   began    his    journey.    We    can   but 

[273] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

wonder  how  he  found  time  to  make  use  of 

any  of  them. 

The  Bible. 

Nome's  Navigation. 

Inman's  Navigation  and  Tables. 

Nautical  Almanacs,  1874,  '75,  '76,  '77. 

Manual  of  Scientific  Inquiry. 

What  to  Observe. 

Darwin's  Origin  of  Species. 

Lyell's  Principles  of  Geology. 

Hugh  Miller's  Old  Red  Sandstone. 

Dictionary  of  Biography. 

Dictionary  of  Geography. 

Dictionary  of  Dates. 

Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 

Dictionary  of  Natural  History. 

Dictionary  of  Science  and  Literature. 

Caesar's  Commentaries. 

Herodotus. 

Horace. 

Juvenal. 

Thucydides. 

Xenophon. 

Plutarch. 

Evelyn's  Diary. 

Pepys's  Diary. 

Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall. 

The  Koran. 

The  Talmud. 

Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets. 

Gil  Bias. 

[274] 


"THE   HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS" 

Don  Quixote. 

Arabian  Nights. 

Hudibras. 

Homer's  Iliad. 

Homer's  Odyssey. 

Virgil's  ^Eneid. 

Shakespeare. 

Milton. 

Byron. 

Scott. 

Moore. 

Pope. 

Thomson. 

Longfellow. 

Tennyson. 

Cowper. 

The  Faerie  Queene. 

Selections  from  the  Old  English  Dramatists. 

Dick's  English  Plays. 

Boswell's  Johnson. 

Ruskin  :  Selections  from  his  works. 

Roscoe's  German,  Italian,  and  Spanish  Novelists. 

Scott's    Ivanhoe,   Talisman,   Guy    Mannering,    and 

Quentin  Durward. 
Bronte's  Jane  Eyre. 
Dickens's  Mutual  Friend. 
Dickens's  David  Copperfield. 
Thackeray's  Esmond. 
Hawthorne's  Transformation. 
George  Eliot's  Middlemarch. 
Irving's  Columbus. 
Irving's  Conquest  of  Granada. 
[275] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Prescott's  Conquest  of  Mexico. 

Mulock's  John  Halifax,  Gentleman. 

Whyte  Melville's  Gladiator. 

Lytton's  Rienzi. 

Lytton's  Last  of  the  Barons. 

Lytton's  Harold. 

Lytton's  Caxtons. 

Sterne's  Tristram  Shandy. 

Kingsley's  Hypatia. 

Kingsley's  Hereward. 

Archdeacon  Farrar,  being  asked  to  name 
what  he  considered  the  hundred  best  books, 
replied:  "If  all  the  books  in  the  world  were 
in  a  blaze,  the  first  twelve  which  I  would 
snatch  out  of  the  flames  would  be,  the  Bible, 
Imitatio  Christi,  Homer,  iEschylus,  Thucydides, 
Tacitus,  Virgil,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Dante,  Shake- 
speare, Milton,  Wordsworth.  Of  living  authors 
I  would  save  first  the  works  of  Tennyson, 
Browning,  and  Ruskin." 

I  cannot  close  this  chapter  of  book  lists 
without  complying  with  the  wishes  of  many 
parents  and  teachers  who  desire  a  more  ex- 
tended catalogue  of  works  suitable  for  a  young 
person's  library  than  I  have  yet  given.  Here 
[  276  ] 


"THE   HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS" 
are  a  hundred  volumes,  many  of  which  can 
be  described  as  the  best  of  their  class.  All  are 
entertaining,  instructive,  and  safe. 

Andersen's  Fairy  Stories. 

Carroll's  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland. 

Peck's  Adventures  of  Mabel.  —  - 

Defoe's  Robinson  Crusoe. 

Kipling's  Jungle  Books  (2  vols.). 

Lang's  Animal  Story  Book:  ' 

Lang's  True  Story  Book. 

Lang's  Red  True  Story  Book. 

Lang's  Fairy  Books  (Red,  Blue,  Green,  Yellow,  Pink, 
Gray,  Violet — 7  vols.). 

Mulock's  Little  Lame  Prince. 

Hawthorne's  Wonder  Book. 

Hawthorne's  Tanglewood  Tales. 

Jacors's  The  Book  of  Wonder  Voyages. 

Kingsley's  Greek  Heroes. 

Kingsley's  Water  Babies. 

Sewall's  Black  Beauty. 

Lanier's  Boys'  King  Arthur. 

Scott's  Ivanhoe. 

Lanier's  Boys'  Percy. 

Ahhott's  Histories  (30  vols.  Old  and  not  always  trust- 
worthy, and  yet  without  rivals). 

Dickens's  Child's  History  of  England  (interesting,  but 
not  entirely  trustworthy). 

Scudder's  Bodley  Books  (8  vols.). 

Church's  Stories  from  Homer. 

The  Story  of  Siegfried. 

[277] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

The  Story  of  Roland. 

A  Story  of  the  Golden  Age. 

Mrs.  Dodge's  Hans  Brinker,  or  the  Silver  Skates. 

Helen  Hunt  Jackson's  Bits  of  Talk  for  Young  People. 

Stevenson's  Child's  Garden  of  Verses. 

Coffin's  Old  Times  in  the  Colonies. 

Coffin's  Boys  of  '76. 

Coffin's  Building  the  Nation. 

Thaxter's  Among  the  Isles  of  Shoals. 

Whittier's  Snow-Bound. 

Longfellow's  Poems.  ^ 

Starrett's  Letters  to  a  Daughter. 

Notes  for  Boys,  by  an  Old  Boy. 

Munger's  Lamps  and  Paths. 

Butcher  and  Lang's  Homer  (2  vols.). 

Alcott's  Little  Women. 

Alice  Cary's  Clovernook  Children. 

Lamb's  Tales  from  Shakespeare. 

Edgeworth's  Parents'  Assistant. 

Aikin  and  Barbauld's  Evenings  at  Home. 
(The  four  last  named    are  old-fashioned  classics 
which  have  not  yet  lost  their  interest. ) 

Martineau's  Feats  on  the  Fjord. 

Mrs.  Burnett's  Little  Lord  Fauntleroy. 

Ouida's  The  Dog  of  Flanders. 

Ouida's  The  Nurnberg  Stove. 

Beard's  American  Boy's  Handy  Book. 

Beard's  American  Girl's  Handy  Book. 

Thompson's  Wild  Animals  I  have  Known. 

White's  Plutarch  for  Boys  and  Girls. 

Bolton's  Poor  Boys  who  became  Famous. 

Dr.  John  Brown's  Rab  and  his  Friends. 
[  278  ] 


"THE   HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS" 

Ruskin's  King  of  the  Golden  River. 
Stevenson's  Will  o'  the  Mill. 

And  to  this  list  I  add  still  another  of  a  hun- 
dred— a  hundred  books  on  nature  and  nature 
study,  suitable  for  all  whose  hearts  are  young 
and  who  find  instruction  and  delight  in  the 
observation  of  God's  works  and  the  companion- 
ship of  His  creatures.  Not  all  these  works  are 
of  equal  merit  or  interest,  but  every  one  is 
worthy  of  a  place  in  your  library. 

Izaak  Walton  :  The  Complete  Angler. 
Gilbert  White  :  The  Natural  History  of  Selborne. 
Van  Dyke  :  Fisherman's  Luck. 
Van  Dyke  :  Little  Rivers. 
Hallock  :  The  Fishing  Tourist. 

C.  C.  Abbott  :  A  Naturalist's  Rambles  about  Home. 
C.  C.  Abbott  :  Waste-Land  Wanderings. 
C.  C.  Abbott  :  Days  out  of  Doors. 
C.  C.  Abbott  :  Travels  in  a  Tree  Top. 
C.  C.  Abbott  :  The  Birds  about  us. 
C.  C.  Abbott  :  Birdland  Echoes. 
Chapman  :  Bird  Life. 
Neltje  Blanchan  :  Bird  Neighbors. 
Neltje  Blanchan  :  Birds  that  Hunt  and  are  Hunted. 
Keyser  :  News  from  the  Birds. 
Keyser  :  In  Bird  Land. 
Merriam  :  Birds  of  Village  and  Field. 
Olive  Thorne  Miller  :  Birds'  Ways. 
[279] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Olive  Thorne  Miller  :  Little  Brothers  of  the  Air. 

Olive  Thorne  Miller  :  In  Nesting  Time. 

Olive  Thorne  Miller  :  The  First  Book  of  Birds. 

Olive  Thorne  Miller  :  The  Second  Book  of  Birds. 

Dixon  :  Curiosities  of  Bird  Life. 

Thompson  :  Bird  Portraits. 

Mabel  Osgood  Wright  :  Birdcraft. 

Bradford  Torrev  :  Birds  in  the  Bush. 

Bradford  Torrey  :  Spring  Notes  from  Tennessee. 

Boardman  :  The  Lovers  of  the  Woods. 

Burroughs  :  Winter  Sunshine. 

Burroughs  :  Birds  and  Poets. 

Burroughs  :  Locusts  and  Wild  Honey. 

Burroughs  :  Signs  and  Seasons. 

Hamilton  Gibson  :  Sharp  Eyes. 

Hamilton   Gibson:   Eye   Spy:   Afield  with    Nature 

among  Flowers  and  Animate  Things. 
McCook  :  Tenants  of  an  Old  Farm. 
Morley  :  A  Song  of  Life. 
Mowbray  :  A  Journey  to  Nature. 
Thoreau  :  Excursions  in  Field  and  Forest. 
Thoreau  :  A  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimack 

Rivers. 
Thoreau  :  Summer. 
Thoreau  :  Winter. 
Thoreau  :  Autumn. 
Thoreau  :  Walden. 
Torrey  :  Footing  it  in  Franconia. 
Torrey  :  A  World  of  Green. 
Mabel  Osgood  Wright  :  Tommy  Anne  and  the  Three 

Hearts. 
Mabel  Osgood  Wright  :  Wabeno  the  Magician. 
[  280  ] 


"THE   HUNDRED   BEST   BOOKS" 

John  C.  Van  Dyke  :  The  Desert. 

John  C.  Van  Dyke  :  Nature  for  its  own  Sake. 

Kearton  :  Wild  Life  at  Home. 

Fraser  :  Mooswa. 

Fraser  :  The  Outcasts. 

Thompson  :  Wild  Animals  I  have  Known. 

Thompson  :  The  Lives  of  the  Hunted. 

Thompson  :  The  Biography  of  a  Grizzly. 

Bartlett  :  Animals  at  Home. 

Holder  :  Marvels  of  Animal  Life. 

Holder  :  Stories  of  Animal  Life. 

Ensign  :  Lady  Lee  and  other  Animal  Stories. 

Lounsbury  :  A  Guide  to  the  Trees. 

Keeler  :  Our  Native  Trees. 

Neltje  Blanch  an  :  Nature's  Garden. 

Mrs.  Dana  :  How  to  Know  the  Wild  Flowers. 

Mrs.  Dana  :  How  to  Know  the  Ferns. 

Mrs.  Dana  :  Plants  and  their  Children. 

Wright  :  Flowers  and  Ferns  in  their  Haunts. 

Schuyler  :  Familiar  Flowers  of  Field  and  Garden. 

Scudder  :  Frail  Children  of  the  Air. 

Robinson  :  In  New  England  Fields  and  Woods. 

Skinner  :  Nature  in  a  City  Yard. 

Miller  :  The  Brook  Book. 

John  Fox,  Jr.  :  Bluegrass  and  Rhododendron. 

Gatty:  Parables  from  Nature  (2  vols.). 

Holder  :  Living  Lights. 

Jones  :  Jess :  Bits  of  Wayside  Gospel. 

Sieveking  :  Gardens  Ancient  and  Modern. 

Elizabeth  and  her  German  Garden. 

E.  V.  B. :  Sylvana's  Letters  to  an  Unknown  Friend. 

Herrick  :  Chapters  on  Plant  Life. 

[281  ] 


THE   BOOK   LOVER 

Morley  :  The  Honey  Makers. 
Morley  :  The  Bee  People  (for  children). 
Maeterlinck  :  The  Life  of  the  Bee. 
Kelly  :  Our  Shy  Neighbors. 
Vincent :  The  Plant  World. 
Vincent  :  The  Animal  World. 
Holden  :  Earth  and  Sky. 
Baskett  :  The  Story  of  the  Fishes. 
Weed  :  The  Insect  World. 
Buckley  :  The  Fairyland  of  Science. 
Buckley  :  Life  and  her  Children. 
Buckley  :  Winners  in  Life's  Race. 
Wood  :  Natural  History  (for  reference,  3  vols. ). 
Lydekker  :  The  Royal  Natural  History  (for  reference, 
6  vols.). 


[  282  ] 


AN  AFTER  WORD 

Here  let  us  face  the  last  question  of  all:  In  the 
shade  and  valley  of  Life,  on  what  shall  we  repose? 
When  we  must  withdraw  from  the  scenes  which  our 
own  energies  and  agonies  have  somewhat  helped  to 
make  glorious ;  when  the  windows  are  darkened,  and 
the  sound  of  the  grinding  is  low,  —  where  shall  we 
find  the  beds  of  asphodel?  Can  any  couch  be  more 
delectable  than  that  amidst  the  Elysian  leaves  of 
books  ?  The  occupations  of  the  morning  and  the  noon 
determine  the  affections,  which  will  continue  to  seek 
their  old  nourishment  when  the  grand  climacteric  has 
been  reached. 

The  Author  of  "Hesperides" 


INDEX 


Is  it  really  true  that  we  are  known  by  the  company 
we  keep?  Then  you  librarians  belong  to  the  highest 
society  that  this  world  can  produce.  If  you  happen  to 
build  a  house — just  as  a  trial  to  your  patience — you 
will  agree  with  Dean  Swift  that  the  finest  furniture 
for  a  room  is  books.  Even  if  you  never  open  a  book  it 
is  good  to  have  it  around.  You  are  in  good  company 
if  you  only  look  at  the  backs. 

Andrew  Carnegie 


INDEX 


Adams,  W.  Davenport,  96 

Addison,  Joseph,  4%i  96 

Advertising,  43 

Jfischylus,  49,  96 

JEsop,  96 

Africa,  209 

Alcott,A.  Bronson,  20,  84, 
103 

Allegory,  254 

American  history,  186 

Ancient  history,  151 

Arabian  Nights'  Enter- 
tainment, 96,  130 

Arctic  regions,  202 

Ariosto,  97 

Aristophanes,  97 

Arnauld,  216 

Arnold,  Matthew,  102 

Asia,  207 

Assyria,  157 

Australia,  210 

Axon,  William,  83 

B 

Bacon,  Lord,  71,  83,  97 
Banking,  236 
Baxter,  Richard,  229 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  80 
Bennoch,  Francis,  27 


Besant,  Walter,  100 
Bible,  The,  97,  221,  223, 

224,  276 
Book  lists :  On  Africa,  209; 
allegories,  254;  ancient 
history,  151;  Arctic  re- 
gions, 202;  Asia,  207 ; 
Assyria,  157  ;  Australia, 
210 ;  banking,  236 ;  Con- 
tinental Europe,  169; 
cooperation,  237 ;  de- 
scriptive poetry,  256  ;  di- 
dactic poetry,  254;  dra- 
matic literature,  249  ; 
Egypt,  156;  English  his- 
tory, 169;  English  litera- 
ture, 243,  248;  epic  poe- 
try, 251;  Europe,  205; 
fiction,  257;  free  trade, 
239;  general  literature, 
259;  geography,  197; 
government,  233;  history, 
151,  169;  humor,  256; 
** hundred  best  books," 
265;  Greece,  158;  labor 
and  wages,  238;  lyric 
poetry,  255;  mediawal  ro- 
mances, 131  ;for  medical 
students,  215 ;  narrative 


[  287  ] 


INDEX 


poetry,  252;  nature,  279  ; 
novels,  271;  pauperism, 
289;    philosophy,    215; 
political   economy,  233; 
population,   236;   books 
of  power,  78,  95;  prose 
fiction,  257;  protection, 
239;  religion,  215;  ro- 
mantic    poetry,      252; 
Rome,  161;  satire,  256; 
socialism,  237  ;  the  tariff 
question,    239 ;    travels, 
197;  wages,  238;  wealth, 
235;  wit,  256 
Book  love,  12,  26 
Books:  In  praise  of,  13; 
the  choice  of,  30,  81;  for 
children,  111,  211,  277: 
one  hundred  best,  265 ; 
one  hundred  for  young 
people,  277;  one  hundred 
on  nature,  279 
Borrowed  books,  77,  82 
BoswelVs  Johnson,  97 
Bright,  John,  22,  84 
Bronte,  Charlotte,  105 
Brooke,  Stopford,  98,  100 
Brown,  Dr.  John,  215 
Browne,  Matthew,  66 
Browne,  Sir  Thomas,  97 
Buchanan,  Robert,  99 
Buckle,  H.  T.,  235 


Bunyan,  John,  97,  247 
Burke,  Edmund,  97 
Burns,  Robert,  98 
Burton,  Robert,  25,  98 
Bury,  Richard  de,  14, 196, 

199 
Byron,  Lord,  98 


Calvin,  John,  35 
"Canterbury  Tales,"  247 
Carlyle,    Thomas,   19,   35, 

38,  62,  81,  97,  98,  156 
Cervantes,  98 
Chambers,  Robert,  99, 100, 

104,  121 
Chambers,  William,  121 
Channing,  William  Ellery, 

18 
Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  58,  98, 

247 
Children,  books  for,  111 
Children's  books,  one  hun- 
dred, 277 
Choice  of  books,  31 
Cicero,  98 

Clarke,  James  Freeman,  24 
Clarke,  Mary  Cowden,  146 
Cobbett,  William,  42 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  72,  98 
Collier,  Jeremy,  17 
Colly er,  Robert,  34, 110,124 


[  288  ] 


INDEX 


Colton,  Charles  C,  72 
Comte,  Auguste,  59 
Confucius,  4% 
Continental  Europe,  169 
Cooperation,  237 
Corasius,  16 

Currency,  Wealth  and,  235 
Curtis,  George  William,  98 


jy Ancona,  99 
Dante,  49,  97,  99 
Dawson,  George,  85 
Defoe,  Daniel,  99 
Demosthenes,  99,  21ft 
Descriptive  poetry,  256 
Desultory  reading,  ft ',  50, 

62,  69,  137 
Dickens,  Charles,  99 
Didactic  poetry,  254 
Dole,  N.  H.,  103 
Dramatic  literature,  249 
Drayton,  Michael,  103 
" Dreamthorp,"  87 
Dryden,  John,  98,  99 
Dyer,  George,  84 

E 

Eggeling,  Julius,  102 
Egypt,  156 
Eliot,  George,  99,  225 
Emerson,    Ralph    Waldo, 
[2 


21,  63,  96,  99,  104,  161, 
168,  226 

English  literature,  169, 
243,  248 

Epic  poetry,  251 

Epictetus,  100 

Euripides,  100 

Europe,  history,  169;  trav- 
els, 205 


Fairy  tales,  129 
Farrar,  Archdeacon,  276 
"Faust,"  35,  100 
Fiction,  prose,  257,  271 
Fielding,  Henry,  100 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  112 
Free  trade,  239 
Froissart,  100 
Froude,  J.  A.,  98,  152 

G 

General  literature,  259 
Geography    and     travels, 

197 
Gibbon,  Edward,  69,  100 
Gilfillan,  George,  64 
Goethe,  73,  100,  108 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  100 
Government,  Science  of,  233 
Greece,  158 
Green,  John  Richard,  96 

9] 


INDEX 


Guernsey,  Alfred  H.,  98 
"Gulistan,  The"  10 %  223 

H 

Hale,  Sir  Matthew,  221 
Hallam,  Henry,  97,  105 
Hamerton,  Philip  O.,  78 
Handling  books,  11/5 
Hannay,  James,  104 
Hard  reading,  53,  215,  217 
Hare,  Julius  C,  62 
Harrison,  Frederic,  47,  99, 

244 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  100 
Hazlitt,  William,  105 
Helps,  Sir  Arthur,  65,  186 
Herodotus,  49,  101 
Holmes,    Oliver    Wendell, 

95,  101 
Homer,  49,  101,  117,  118 
Horace,  101 
How  to  read,  59 
Hudson,   Henry  N.,  137, 

140 
Hugo,  Victor,  84,  97,  101 
"Hundred     Best    Books, 

The,"  265 
Hunt,  Leigh,  104,  106 


"Imitation  of  Christ,"  22 
Irving,  Washington,  125 


James,  Henry,  101 
Jebb,  B.  C,  99 
Jerrold,  Douglas,  145 
Johnson,  Samuel,  98 
Jonson,  Ben,  97 

K 

"Kalevala,  The,"  102 
Keats,  John,  102 
Kingsley,  Charles,  26 


Labor  and  Wages,  238 
Lamb,   Charles,  102,  103, 

107,  146 
Lang,  Andrew,  103 
Lang  ford,  John  A.,  23 
Libraries,  value  of,  77 
Literary  dyspepsia,  127 
Literature,  169,  243,  248, 

259 
Locke,  John,  61 
Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  106 
Longfellow,  II.  W„  102 
Longinus,  101 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  99, 

102 
Lubbock,  Sir  John,  30, 264, 


Luther,  Martin,  61 


[  290  ] 


INDEX 


Lyric  poetry,  255 

Lytton,  Lord,  97,  101,  104 

M 

Macaulay,  Lord,  98,  102, 

158,  282 
Mackail,  J.  W.,  105 
Mackenzie,  R.  S.,  101 
" Mahabharata,  The,"  102 
Malory,  Sir  Thomas,  102 
Malthus,  236 
Marcus  Aurelius,  102 
Marlowe,  Christopher,  103 
Martineau,  Harriet,  59 
Mediceval  romances,  131 
Medical  students,  215 
Miller,  Hugh,  115 
Milton,  John,  16,  17,  103, 


Minto,  William,  106 
Mitchell,  Donald  0.,  105 
Modern  history,  169 
Moliere,  103 

Monier-Williams,  Sir,  104 
Montaigne,  103 
Morse,  James  H.,  51 
Muller,  Max,  102 
Myths,  ISO 

N 
Narrative  poetry,  252 
Nature  books,  one  hundred, 


"Nibelungenlied,  The,"  103 
North  America,  202 
Novels,  the' 'hundred  best," 
271.  See  Fiction. 

O 

Omar  Khayyam,  103 

P 
"Paradise  Lost,"  103,  247 
Parker,  Theodore,  21,  215 
Pauperism,  239 
Peck,  H  T,  96 
Periodical  literature,  186 
Perkins,  F.  B.,  271 
Petrarca,  Francesco,  15 
Phillips,  George  S.,  23 
Philosophy   and   religion, 

215 
"Pilgrim's  Progress,"  97, 


Plato,  49,  108 
Pliny  the  Elder,  S3 
Plutarch,  21,  108 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  104 
Political  Economy,  232 
Pope,  Alexander,  104 
Population,  236 
Porrte,  Gilbert  de  la,  89 
Procter,  Bryan  Waller,  69, 

76 
Prose  fiction,  257 
Protection,  239 
[291] 


INDEX 


Q 

Qtiintilian,  61 

R 

"Ramayana,  The,'"  10  4 
Rantzau,  Henry,  28 
Religion,  Philosophy  and, 

215 
Rhodiginus,        Balthasar 

Bonifacius,  16 
Rhys,  Ernest,  102 
Richardson,    Charles    F., 

67,  72 
Richter,  Jean  Paul,  85 
Ringelbergius,  21$ 
Robertson,  Fred'k  W.,  59 
**  Robinson    Crusoe,"    99, 

133 
Romantic  poetry,  252 
Rome,  161 
Ruskin,  John,  Ifi,  J^8,  54, 

66,  79,  94,  269 


Saadi,  104 
Sancho  Panza,  66 
Satire,  wit,  and  humor,  256 
Schlegel,  A.  W.,  97 
School  libraries,  141 
Schopenhauer,  Arthur,  37, 


Scott,  Sir  Walter,  104,  247 
Sea,  books  of  the,  201 
Seneca,  60 
Shakespeare,  17,  49,  63,  83, 

104,  247 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  104 
Skipping,  the  art  of,  73 
Smith,  Alexander,  87,  102 
Socialism  and  cooperation, 

237 
Socrates,  42 
Sophocles,  105 
South  America,  204 
South,  Robert,  47,  62 
Southey,  Robert,  35 
(i  Spectator,  The,"  114 
Spenser,  Edmund,  49, 105, 

246 
Stanley,  Henry  M.,  273 
Stevenson,   Robert   Louis, 

97,  102 
Story  books,  128 
Sunday-school      libraries, 

126 
Symonds,  J.  A.,  105 


Taine,  H.  A.,  100,  105 
Tariff,  239 
Tasso,  105 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  105 
Thackeray,  W.  M.,  105 


[  292  ] 


INDEX 


Theocritus,  105 
Thirlwall,  Bishop,  60 
Travels,  197 
Trollope,  Anthony,  13 

U 

United  States,  186 

V 

Virgil,  105 

W 

Wages,  Labor  and,  238 


Waldstein,  Charles,  99 
Walton,  Izaak,  105 
Waverley  Novels,  104 
Wealth  and  currency,  235 
Webster,  Daniel,  105,  247 
Whipple,  Edwin  P.,  25 
Wordsworth,  William,  27, 

106,  2U 
Wren,     Sir    Christopher, 


Young  people,  211,  277 


SELECTIONS   FROM   THE  WORLD'S  GREATEST 
SHORT   STORIES 

Illustrative  of  the  History  of  Short  Story  Writing 

With  Critical  and  Historical  Comments 

By  SHERWIN  CODY 

Since  its  publication  Mr.  Cody's  book  has  been  adopted  by- 
twelve  large  universities,  and  a  score  of  smaller  institutions, 
which  is  a  demonstration  of  its  practical  worth.  Nothing  just 
like  it  has  ever  been  available,  and  students  of  literature  have 
been  quick  to  recognize  this  fact.  This  volume  is  far  more 
than  a  collection  of  short  tales  that  may  as  conveniently  be 
read  elsewhere,  as  the  series  of  fourteen  introductions  to  the 
various  stories  constitute  the  only  comprehensive  history  of 
short  story  writing  as  an  art  ever  published.  With  the  stories 
at  hand,  these  introductions  also  briefly  point  out  the  ele- 
mentary principles  in  the  artistic  construction  of  any  short 
story,  so  giving  the  reader  a  key  for  intelligently  reading 
any  story.  The  complete  list  of  stories  is  as  follows :  — 

Patient  Griselda,  from  the  "Decameron"  of  Boccaccio 
Aladdin,  from  the  "Arabian  Nights'" 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  by  Washington  Irving 
A  Passion  in  the  Desert,  by  Honore"  de  Balzac 
The  Christmas  Carol,  by  Charles  Dickens 
A  Child's  Dream  of  a  Star,  by  Charles  Dickens 
A  Princess 's  Tragedy,  from  "Barry  Lyndon,"  by  Thackeray 
The  Gold-Bug,  by  Edgar  Allan  Poe 
The  Great  Stone  Face,  by  Nathaniel  Hawthorne 
The  Necklace  and  The  String,  by  Guy  de  Maupassant 
The  Man  Who  Would  Be  King,  by  Rudyard  Kipling 
How  Gavin  Birse  put  it  to  Mag  Lownie,  by  J.  M.  Barrie 
On  the  Stairs,  from  **  Tales  of  Mean  Streets,"  by  Arthur 
Morrison 

In  form  and  shape  the  volume  is  uniform  with  "The  Best 
English  Essays,'  being  printed  on  thin  Bible  paper,  so  that 
in  spite  of  its  four  hundred  pages  the  work  is  scarcely  three 
quarters  of  an  inch  thick. 

18mo.  Price,  $1.00  net;  delivered,  $1.06. 
A.  C.  McCLURG  &  COMPANY,  Publishers,  Chicago 


A  SELECTION    FROM 
THE   BEST   ENGLISH   ESSAYS 

Illustrative  of  the  History  of  English  Prose  Style 

Chosen  and  Arranged  with  Historical 
and  Critical  Introductions 

By  SHERWIN  CODY 

EDITOR  OF  "  THE  WORLD'S  GREATEST  SHORT  STORIES,"  AND  AUTHOR 
Or  "THE  ART  OF  WRITING  AND  SPEAKING  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE  " 

Mr.  Cody's  "Selections  from  the  World's  Greatest  Short  Sto- 
ries "  has  met  with  much  approval  by  students  of  literature, 
and  it  is  expected  that  this  new  book,  which  is  a  companion 
volume  to  the  earlier  work  in  every  respect,  will  be  quite  as 
successful.  He  has  included  essays  by  Addison,  Swift,  De 
Quincey,  Lamb,  Carlyle,  Emerson,  Macaulay,  Ruskin,  Ar- 
nold, and  Bacon,  as  illustrative  of  the  history  of  English 
prose  style ;  and  his  historical  and  critical  introductions  to 
each  essay  give  the  book  its  practical  value. 

$1.00  net 

RIGHT   READING 

Words  of  Good  Counsel  on  the 
Choice  and  Use  of  Books 

Selected  from  The  Writings  of  Ten  Famous  Authors 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century 

The  writers  whose  advice  is  here  given  are  Sir  Arthur 
Helps,  Carlyle,  Isaac  D'Israeli,  Emerson,  Schopenhauer, 
Ruskin,  J.  C.  Hare,  John  Morley,  Lowell,  and  Frederic 
Harrison. 

Some  of  the  most  notable  things  which  distinguished  writers 
of  the  nineteenth  century  have  said  in  praise  of  books,  and  by 
way  of  advice  as  to  what  books  to  read,  are  here  reprinted. 
Every  line  has  something  golden  in  it. 

NEW  YORK  TIMES  SATURDAY  REVIEW. 

Beautifully  printed  at  The  Merrymount  Press.  16mo}  80 
cents  net. 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  COMPANY,  Publishers,  Chicago 


**WORD  AND  PHRASE 
True  and  False  Use  in  English 
By  JOSEPH  FITZGERALD 
This  will  be  found  a  most  novel  and  interesting  book  on 
the  subject,  with  many  new  ideas  and  much  original  thought. 
The  chapter  headings  show  the  comprehensive  nature  of  Mr. 
Fitzgerald's  work:  Introduction;  Degradation  of  Words; 
Metaphors,  False  Lights,  Mere  Etymologies ;  Terms  of  the 
Household  and  Business ;  Terms  of  Literature,  Philosophy, 
Science,  and  the  Professions ;  Terms  of  the  Church  and  Reli- 
gion ;  Word-Pairs,  Synonyms,  Analogues ;  Obsolescence,  Ob- 
soletion,  New  Coinage ;  Ignorantisms  in  Words  and  Phrases ; 
Some  Points  of  Syntax  and  the  Laws  of  Expression ;  Some 
Faults  and  Excellences  of  English ;  Orthography,  Punctua- 
tion, Pronunciation ;  Foreign  Words  in  English.  In  the  Ap- 
pendix are  chapters  on :  John  Ruskin  on  the  Study  of  Words ; 
Homely  English  and  Latin-English ;  Words  and  Phrases  De- 
graded ;  Shall  and  Will. 

There  is  so  much  animation  of  style,  such  fertility  and  aptness 
in  illustration,  that  not  a  page  in  the  whole  four  hundred  that 
make  up  the  volume  is  dull  reading.  the  dial. 

12mo,  420  pages,  indexed,  $1.25  net;  delivered,  $1.38. 

CHOICE   READINGS 
FOR  PUBLIC  AND   PRIVATE  ENTERTAINMENTS 

And  for  the  Use  of  Schools,  Colleges,  and  Public 
Readers,  with  Elocutionary  Advice 

Edited  by  ROBERT  McLEAN  CUMNOCK,   A.M. 
Revised  and  enlarged.  Forty -sixth  Thousand. 

For  many  years  "Cumnock's  Choice  Readings"  has  been  a 
familiar  phrase,  and  careful  and  constant  revision  has  kept 
it  the  standard  text-book  for  elocution  classes.  Yet  in  spite 
of  its  long  use  there  is  nothing  old-fashioned  or  out  of  date 
about  this  admirable  work.  The  present  edition  (forty-sixth 
thousand)  has  been  much  enlarged ;  about  one  half  the  old 
selections  have  been  replaced  by  new  ones,  and  the  editor 
has  introduced  much  new  and  original  matter,  especially  in 
regard  to  elocution.  With  this  important  addition  the  volume 
can  be  used  as  a  manual  for  instruction,  as  well  as  a  book  of 
selections. 

12mo,  602  pages,  $1.50. 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  COMPANY,  Publishers,  Chicago 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 

University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 

(510)642-6753 
1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  NRLF 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


401092 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


